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By same . ' 



HISTORY OF RATIONALISM. 

Embra 

Jous F. Hi »I. li D. Wltli A 

ed edition. One vol.. . Price, $3 50. 

HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 

Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. 

Bj K R. 1! ■. .■ (tBA< 11. I» !' 

John I'. Ill Birr, D.D. 

J .-. .1 vols , 8vo. F 00 



PUSTP Ml'. "V HI OF PRICK 



LIFE AND LITERATURE 



IN 



THE FATHERLAND. 



1 
By JOHN F. HURST. 



i 



NEW YORK : 

SCRIBNER, ARMSTRONG & COMPANY. 

1875. 






Entei ■ ling to .' 

SCRIBNLR, ARMSTRONG, & COMPANY, 
in tl of I In- I i 



«« 



COITEN T S. 



I. THE HOME.— TASTES AND USAGES. 
Chapter Pagb 

I. Encottaged in Bremen. — The Faulenstrasse.. 3 

IT. A German Year Market 13 

IH. Christmas in Shop and at Fireside 18 

IV. Out of our First Bremen Winter. — A Dash Parisward 28 

V. Across France to Strasbourg 36 

VT. Northward by the Rhine 44 

VII. Meals and Servants 52 

VIII. Other Shades of German Life 58 

IX. The Germans and their Gardens 66 

II. SCHOOLS— GREAT AND SMALL. 

I. Legislation on Schools. — Comparative Statistics 75 

II. The Kindergarten 82 

III. The Frankfort School s 89 

IV. Protestant Schools in Austria. — School Reformers... 94 
V. The Machinery of the German University 104 

VI. Heidelberg University 116 

VII. Halle. — Two of its Nestors 125 

VIII. The Berlin University. — Leading Professors 134 

IX. Munich. — Doellinger and Schelling 143 

X. The Universities of Europe. — Doellinger's Survey... . 153 
XI. The Universities. — A Word on Attending them 165 

III. BOOKS— WRITING, MAKING, AND SELLING. 

I. Literary Productiveness. — Peculiarities 175 

II. Secrets of German Authorship 182 

III. The Manufacture of Books 190 



vi Y//;.V/.\ 
Chaptb 
I v. Usages 01 i he Gi km *n Book Trade 

V. I in- Paradisi 01 I 

VI. Thi Brockhaus 1 fSE.— Perthes 217 

VII. ii ind Books.- B11 1 iogi vphy 

VIII. Literary Characters.— ' 

IX. Oddities 01 the Newspaper, li- -yard... 258 

l\. GERMANY IX FIGH1 [NG MOOD. 

I. \\ • ■ I'.USINESS IN EUROPF. 

n. German I > in 1 niform.— The Landwehr 

III. R] vmv; 1 in. mi. 1, I'm : 

iv. Help for the Soldiers 

v. The Pulpit and thi I in rHE War 

VI. A S\l URDAY LMONG THI l'l 

\. KX ^PSACK AND A I PENST< ICK. 

I. Toward the Tyroi 

11. The Tyrolese and their Mountains 

iii. meran and the tyrol castle 

[V. ' »\ 1 r \ Backbone.— Cri 

V. Fate of a Tyroli ;e Guide 

VI. Down the Inn Valley.— Innsbruck 

VII. Thi Hartz.— The Brocken 

VIII. Tin Wl I • 1 1 1 S' I»\N' ING-l laci 

[X. Cassel. — A Bit 01 its Romano 

x. Two 1:1 n >.— < >i \ N " Hi 1 1' 

\i. Germany's Athens ■'■ • 

XII. I'm. 1 1 Meccas 

XIII. M IRBAI 11 : S< HI1 LEI HP1 IC1 »'- 

XIV. Down thi Neckar in Vintage-timi 422 

x\ 



I. 

THE HOME-TASTES AND USAGES. 



Til !•: G ER M A X - i' \TII K R I. \ 

Where is the Germm • indf 

- 
Wii - e \iiu-. where il"«^ U 

hi ro the pull hkim- Baltic bi 

Mu>t !«.• the Ucrmai mL 



therefore, 
Name, now, at la (bty bind I 

When 

German bj 

gallant brother, take thy si 
That Is thi l and. 



Tlmt i* liis land, th<- land <>f 

When 

Where valor lights tl 

Where tore :m<I troth li 

And *eal enklnri ind; 

That 

■ \«\\h and Mesa ihnt land ! 
And (five her noble children - 
orlalt, w hilt 

Aiwl r l aid « ill/ 



LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 



CHAPTER I. 

ENCOTTAGED IN BREMEN. THE FAULENSTRASSE. 

TV /[" Y first arrival in Germany was late in August, after 
•*- ' -*- a long voyage in a superannuated wooden steamer. 
How long this venerable structure had been tempting the 
destructive wrath of Neptune was known to few, but in 
the only stiff breeze we had, which was when we were 
drawing within the jaws of the English Channel, she 
creaked and stretched and yawned with each new wave, 
as if every bolt and brace were in a state of outright re- 
bellion. To my remark to a gray Jack Salt, who leaned 
most complacently against the gunwale and smoked his 
grimy clay pipe, that the very deck-seams widened now 
and then with the strain, there came the philosophical 
response, that all-good vessels are like baskets— they must 
bend and give, or they are good for nothing. And, in 
very sooth, that ancient craft did bend and give most bas- 
ket-like. Years afterward, so I have learned, her name 
was changed, quite harmoniously with our American wont 

in cases of ante-mortem maritime canonization, and she 
1* 



4 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

was transferred to the Central American trade. Later — 
thus runneth the legend — she rounded the Horn,, and did 
duty on the Pacific coast in the region of San Franci 
For aught I know, .she may now be in the Chin. 

traffic, and never wanting for fresh paint, like a ; 

:it old danseuse, to hide the wrinkles of her m 
years. Sweet he her sleep, on whatever bottom her b- 
lie down to rest ! 

Just ten years after my first view of the Hat hanks, trim 
gardens, thatched cottages, and quaint and leisurely wind- 
mills of the unpretentious Weser, I arrived a second time 
in Bremen, after a delightful passage in the "Ara< 
beautiful iron ship of strength and speed. But the 

August sun was not shining this time. The welcome 
chilly enough. Madame tie Stael says, "The first imj i 
sions that ate received on arriving in the north 
many, above all in the middle of the winter. • remedy 

gloomy. . . . The frontier of the Rhine ': 
sokinn in it." ' This is every traveler's experience, even 
the cockney's, with his beard dripping with i 

abed there late in the autumn ; and 
vember, especially within reach of the bi 
Sea, means furious winds, drivii ind thi 

gUSt of snow, thick furs and gay woolen v. . and 

-feat patches of El dahlias and ti. My : 

impulse was to run off with the fust train 

istratur Sack, on the Wilhelmsplatz in m< 
still moated Brunswick, t late him on his 

book on Chimi, look at the led V. a ill 

N 



ENCOTTAGED IN BREMEN. 5 

his button-hole, to get close beside his great porcelain stove, 
to go over the good old days when we lingered among the 
books of Wolfenbuttel and climbed the Brocken, to gaze 
out of his window upon the bronze lion which brave cru- 
sading Henry IV. put in position seven centuries ago, and 
then to bury myself in work, as a decade agone, in a little 
third-story room in Frau M tiller's house, in muddy, crooked, 
placid, learned Halle. 

But there was now a different path ahead. I was to 
be domesticated this time in Bremen, and passing the 
former half of my time in that city, and the latter in Frank- 
fort-on-the-Main, to spend five years in the good Fatherland. 
The cottage prepared for us, in the quiet Steffensweg, num- 
ber three, was utterly innocent of carpet, and, according to 
American notions of a comfortable home, of many other 
requisites. Friendly hands, however, had provided some 
heavier articles, especially an abundance of colossal stoves, 
and had packed away, like bricks in a kiln, in two of the 
upper rooms, a long winter's supply of turf from the low- 
lands of still primitive and honest Frisia. The process of 
becoming established was tedious, and, out of Germany, 
would have been provoking. A chief difficulty lay in the 
utter impossibility of matching certain portions of furni- 
ture which we had brought with us from America. As to 
completing a bed-room set, or a China service, or getting 
any thing to suit any thing else, it was simply out of the 
question. For example, in endeavoring to find a bedstead 
of proper dimensions to fit an excellent mattress that we 
had brought along, I soon met with disappointment. There 
was not a cabinet shop in that whole city of ninety thousand 



LIFE IN THE FATHERLAN, 

kind souls and ruddy h I did n- 

the 
required proportions. Now th< 
ently as much so as that from which the feet 
ulent old uncle protruded, with a 1 

>ver him and a pigmy one beneath him. N 

were t larrow, and of course had 

only approach to what I desired w the 

length, but of only three-quarter width. Ti. 
man was out, but his wife pr< 
of her lord. I insisted that the <»ne in qu 
narrow. 

• Not at all." .she de< :r make them 

" Well, then, I wi>h a larger one than 
" You are mistaken." she rejoined, ' 

dstead of different size from this \ 

"Bui I really am not,' I ventured. "I have th 
measurement here in my hand 1 knew just wi. I 
in search of, and must have it." 

•■ Now / know what you want 
Tins bedstead is just the thing. Why, it 
bn 

I in her 

ui well worthy of h 
moment ild have deli 

leur ol 
throu 

i 



ENCOTTAGED IN BREMEN. 7 

toward the street door for timely escape. I am satisfied 
that if I had stood, and shivered, and argued in that cold 
shop for twenty-four hours, I could not have convinced her 
of the propriety of my having just what I was searching for. 
Subsequently, a humble cabinet maker was found, in an 
obscure street, who consented to run all the risk of losing 
what little reputation he had by adapting a German bed- 
stead to an American mattress. 

Now, in this whole matter I was wrong. The expecta- 
tion of finding" in Germany just what one is accustomed 
to at home, is simply an absurdity. The Germans have 
as much ground for fault-finding when they reach our 
shores as we have when we visit theirs, except when it 
comes to the serious matter of open beer-gardens on Sun- 
days. The attempts of my domestic group to sustain the 
American style of cooking and general housekeeping in 
Bremen continued about six weeks, after which time we 
were ready to submit to all possible gravies ; in fact, to 
eat any thing, and that five times a day, that our Ham- 
burgh cook and neighbor Behrens thought proper in civil- 
ized beings. 

We had been in Bremen but a few hours before hearing 
frequent mention made of the Faulenstrasse. We found 
that this was the place where we were expected to buy 
nearly every thing we were to consume. My curiosity 
was excited to see it, and soon the desire was realized, and 
many times. It seemed to me, after awhile, that my feet 
gravitated toward it spontaneously, so naturally did they 
carry me thither for all purchases, from a tack-hammer to a 
French clock. I soon fell deeply in love with the short, 



8 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

quaint street, the petty brisk' [ue market, 

l-natured shop people, and th 
up and down the old worn ntatious independ- 

I why should not the very d( in their 

country's glory ? Was it not their I ia that had just 
left Austria bleeding and half dead at Sa 

I after hearing the story of th n of the Fau- 

lensti I loved it and its diminutive life with more 

intensity. It runs thus, as the Grimms and oth< 
tellers of German myths give it: — 

Near where that street now .stands there « 
thick forest. The trees were old, but very 
large. Just on the edge of the there lived an a 

couple, who had seven sons. The father was an industri- 
ous man, cultivated his held with care, attended to his 
and supported his whole family by his own i Hut 

it was very different with the seven sons. True, they had 
long legs, broad lucks very strong arms, and well-fon 
heads, and were able to do a great amount of work, ami 
relieve their father from all exertion. But they » 
drom 

"Their parents were very kind ami patient I 
them. The neighbors said of the seven 1 
that they had been spoiled By an ly in 

nen — which in those distant time- small 

Saxon town— became in a certain w with the 

sons of the oil mm, and many persons ma 
them. Even tin- boys in tl 

hem passed, - I the 

brothers I " 



ENCOTTAGED IN BREMEN. 9 

The river Weser ran close to the field of the aged 
father. Often his seven indolent sons would go down to 
the bank and lie there, under the shade of an elm, and 
sleep many hours at a time. In the course of a few 
months the sailors found them out, and when the boats 
passed you could have heard the tars say, " Look under 
the tree ; there are the seven lazy boys ! " But the big 
boys did not like such expressions, and after hearing them 
a great many times they left the river bank, and found 
their way into the great forest. 

They thought nobody would see them now. So they 
lay down in the thick moss, talked a little while about dif- 
ferent useless things, and finally went to sleep. They 
kept up this habit a long time. But when autumn came, 
the boys and girls went through the forest to gather acorns 
and chestnuts. When they saw the seven lazy sons — 
who were almost grown men — they laughed at them, and 
cried out, " Here are the seven lazy brothers whom every 
body laughs at. The chestnuts fall right down on them, 
but they have not energy enough to brush them off, or 
even hull and eat them." So the brothers came home 
again. One would have thought that they would be 
ashamed to let their father do all the work. But they 
never offered to do a thing ; and when they strolled off to 
lie on the ground and sleep somewhere, they never came 
back until their good mother had prepared their meal. 

One day the eldest of the brothers said to the others, 
" Just think how every body laughs at us. We cannot go 
anywhere without even the children coming up behind us 
and pulling our coats, and crying out, ' What lazy fellows 



LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

■ brothc 

I 

the evil* 
the seven la thers li 

Lei us 

do any thin er than permit our g 

father to spend all hi> th for u 

All the six remaining broth up, rubbed t 

. and laughed at what tl. 

raously that they should li 

in some other part of the country. A1 

they told their father wh 

hed at them, and . '. 

. 1 feai . le indu 

really determined I . which 

' iiy, I will . 
and a new suit of i lothes. 1 

proof that is. I will give 

ea< h oik i an ax and 

the axes on your right sh 

;lk through B 

I must be last in 1 
brothc 

I 

in fut , I can pul 

. furthi 



ENCOTTAGED IN BREMEN. 1 1 

to walk through Bremen with axes on their right shoulders 
and spades in their left hands. The people came out of 
their houses to look at them, with such implements of 
work in their possession. Some persons cried out, " The 
world must be coming to an end ! " Others saftl, " That 
is the most wonderful sight we ever saw." 

On Saturday of the following week the old father gave 
his sons the money and clothes which he had promised 
them, and then they started off in procession. Their 
mother said, " They will all be home again to-morrow." 
Their father replied, " Well, I am not so sure of that. They 
seem to be determined to do work of some kind. I think 
they are resolved to mend their lives and set an example of 
industry." The brothers wandered far from home. They 
hired themselves out to a manufacturer, and worked with 
great energy. They were very tired at first, and it seemed 
to them that they could hardly live ; but they adhered to 
their resolution, and finally conquered. They gradually 
rose from a humble to a high position, and acquired 
much property. From time to time they sent home as 
much as several thousand dollars to their parents. 

One bright and beautiful May morning every body in 
Bremen seemed to be out of doors. The old town clock 
struck eleven, and just then you might have seen seven 
men coming into town on foot. They were well dressed, 
and had the appearance of gentlemen. In one respect 
they looked like hard-working laborers ; they had axes on 
their right shoulders and spades in their left hands. The 
people in the streets said to one another, " Can they be the 



l 2 LIFE IX THE F. I THERLANi 

I 

\ \)\\>\. 

. hold theii Bui 

that very old man v. 
k. Where ha> 
\ an tell . it the 

ide in i n, and how 

father and mother u 
humble 1 

which lasl 

.SOD!, 

There is not room to turn 

Jit to pro> We I 

plenty of money, and must build 

A beautiful j 
Bremen, I ■ 

there any hi it Bu! I 

man i the j 

id, thou 
ran right in fronl of the I 
• 

— 

lin. VV 

■ 

I 

And 



ENCO TTA GED IN BREMEN. 1 3 



CHAPTER II. 

A GERMAN YEAR MARKET. 

ONE windy day late in November two immense 
beeves were driven through the streets of the staid 
old city of Bremen on a raffling excursion. They were 
dressed off as gayly as if they had just sauntered out 
of a milliner's shop, or had changed places with the pied 
Swiss Guard as the Pope's escort on Easter Sunday. 
Long ribbons of the brightest colors were streaming from 
their heads, while their natural horns were supplemented 
by others of brass, which towered above the head, and 
were so highly polished as to fairly dazzle ordinary eyes. 
The stately animals, besides having two drivers, were 
attended by a well-dressed man, who, with pencil and 
note-book in hand, waited upon the residents along the 
streets promenaded by the party, and offered them the 
opportunity of taking thaler chances for the ownership 
of the beeves. He was the duly accredited agent of a 
needy orphan asylum, whose funds were getting low, and 
whose fatted beeves were sent out in attractive style to 
help the treasury out of its difficulty by being raffled 
for. There is little doubt that the odd plan for raising 
charitable funds succeeded ; for in a land where the 
amusements, if not the traffic, of the week culminate on 
the Sabbath, it is not likely that the beeves begged in 
vain for a benefaction. 



14 / THE I AT Hi 

Tl ttery whs the precurs 

of those i: 
with 

mple v the 

shoj icrs, 

and 

rhe Year M in all : 

hun< t cities. 1 

tion, and t 1 nan fai- 

ns tl f ] 

;s in the main ; but the 

do 
but attend tl 

which tl in unl 

thn 

I when il 

■ • 
when tl 

i 

I 

■ 

■ 



A GERMAN YEAR MARKET. I 5 

Our Year Market, when I visited it, had been for some 
days blowing its horns, drinking its beer, singing its songs, 
crying its wares, and telling its mercantile falsehoods. 
The prevailing articles seemed at first sight to be toys, gin- 
gerbread, and music. All the streets and alleys were alive 
with organ-grinders, and one was scarcely out of reach of 
their jargon either night or day. No mansion was too 
imposing for their attentions. I saw them in full possession 
of Senator Schuhmacher's doorway, and they enjoyed 
their leisurely stay as composedly as if sole proprietor 
of the premises. 

The market-place and public square were filled with 
booths or stalls, chiefly made of boards, bat in some cases 
of canvas. The external angles of the old Rathhaus and 
Cathedral were occupied to their utmost capacity. It was 
difficult to see where another booth could be thrown in. 
The outskirts of the market were occupied by the dealers 
in crockery and wooden ware. The stalls on the squares 
were arranged in streets, where every art of the shrewd 
tradesman was resorted to in order to effect a speedy and 
advantageous sale. Some of these streets were appropri- 
ated to specialties. There was one section where only cake 
was sold. Brunswick had sent its quota of bakers, who vied 
with the Nurembergers in massive piles of honey-cake 
and gingerbread. No one but a German shopkeeper could 
devise so many styles of cake ; there was every imaginable 
shape, size, color, flavor, and corresponding price. What 
a child would not buy, an older person would ; and so the 
salesmen were constantly confronted by adult customers, 
as well as by others who were so small as not to know that 



1 6 LIFE IN THE E. 1 EH EEL. IX! >. 

theii vould nut Inn all the I in 

many. 
.\s I walked through the market, there 
limit to the toys. Here, iremberg 

:nted The booths much too small to hold evi 
small portion of the whole sto< k. 
were strung up, twisted p nd hung in vai 
" 'tis from one stall to another, around the lam; 
and every support made firm enough to near the 
Irregular mounds of I in ever. 
space, rose as | i the little folks that 
them, and feasted upon them in bewildermei 
also adi lepartment, where the J> n Ham- 
burg were the chief merchants. The \ r fishmi 

pushed into the background, while in < 
them were the soap-venders, lamp-nil trad* 
grocers whom I 
not allow to occupy the pi 

The stationers make a v. : 

and Gillott's pens — I will not say how 

at little more than half the shop ; 1 he 

raphers had galleries in convenient | 

tion, and in the stalls where 

sale you n. I fail ' rily 

h \"U had been wish 
Tin I •: ilese and Swi^s j • 1 . i \ an important ; the 

■ ian \ i .: Mai 
rheii 
tn that in some of the good 

it Theii ( hamois-sk with otl 



A GERMAN YEAR MARKET. 1 7 

ten-up Alpine articles, cannot be bought anywhere at bet- 
ter advantage. The men and women having them for 
sale are gayly dressed in their peculiar cantonal costume. 
The Italians, like Mignon in " Wilhelm Meister," drift all 
the way up from the Mediterranean to the North Sea, with 
a large assortment of ordinary mosaics but good corals. 

One part of the market is appropriated to puppet-shows, 
which are the great centers of attraction to the admiring 
peasantry, who come in throngs from all the surrounding 
country to enjoy their annual paradise of cheap amuse- 
ment. There are shooting-galleries, circuses, zoological 
collections, pictures, natural curiosities, dwarfs, giants, and 
magic lanterns. Much attention is shown the children — 
a part of the population which is never forgotten in any 
department of German life. Amusements for their special 
enjoyment may be found, such as circular railways and 
hobby-horses moved by machinery. There is a band of 
music constantly plying its art in the open air. 

One Tuesday, when the clock struck high noon, the 
balloons collapsed, the booths were knocked to pieces, the 
unsold stock was repacked, and the dealers hurried to 
take the first train for another Year Market. We were 
then relieved of the organ-grinders, though their places 
were but too well occupied by the screeching toys which 
the youthful population had in its hands and at its mouth. 
I dreaded to think of the impending wilder turbulence of 
a German Christmas, to which the bustle, joy, and excite- 
ment of many Year Markets combined are only as the dim 
shadows before the coming events. 



i UFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 



CHAPTER III. 
cm 

ON K whoh the G Chi ist- 

> time— of all th( the m 

failed to under verj 

The treasures of ! that 

lie buried in th rman heart in golden 

through the , are unl< 
univei ing is 

I-will toward men. I 
a different thin. the An 

ment, which comes suddenl) 

Ihristmas atmos 
the twenty-fifth of I>> 
in ii I landed, some 

I Santa Klaus 1 

i in Bremen more 1 

le time. '■ I 

kno 

r him." 

furnitui 



CHRISTMAS IN SHOP AND AT FIRESIDE. 1 9 

advertisements embrace offers of almost every con- 
ceivable thing which young or old could desire to buy and 
give to a friend. There is probably no branch of trade 
which does not receive a new impetus ; every body seems * 
to buy, and sell, and work, for Christmas. I do not ques- 
tion that even the sewing-machine agents sell more of 
their wares during the month of December than during 
the five preceding ones. I was in a large piano store one 
day, and almost every piano was labeled " sold." The 
clock merchants take good care to have an excellent 
assortment of new gilt clocks from Paris on hand, for they 
know right well that if they cannot serve their customers 
for the Christmas season, it will be many a long day before 
they can recover their lost opportunity. The same may 
be said of all classes of dealers. 

Of course, at such a time as this, the booksellers are 
not oblivious to their golden opportunity. Books consti- 
tute an important share of the presents given and received, 
and every effort is made by publisher, binder, and seller, 
to make them worthy a post of high honor on the happy 
Christmas eve. The retail dealers, particularly, make 
enormous profits just at this season. But, however cold 
the weather, commend me to the outside of a German ■ 
bookstore about Christmas time, rather than the inside. 
You may go to almost any bookstore in Frankfort, es- 
pecially on the Zeil — the Broadway of the city — and may 
call yourself fortunate if you can make your way through 
the throng of customers, and still more so if you can get 
any one to wait on you within ten or fifteen minutes after 

you have closed the door behind you ; for, be it remem- 
2 



LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

red, that n<.t t< 
prietorand customers. A I rerman child is taken into the 
pure air when he is a fortmj I, and bis child- 

• hood OUt of doors; but ever afterward pure air is at 
discount with him ; he seems to think he ha 
of it tor his lite-time, and to maintain tant prejudi 

tinst it. The best plan is, to know before you enter 
just what you wish ; have but tew word 
out as hie, if you have i< r your lun 

feet, and hat. For pure air, and a re:. lit of o< 

hooks, in all departments and si binding, a pla 

OUtside the window, if you ran secure on,-, is : t- 

ahle. Yes, if you can secure oik-; for often there . 
such numbers at even the windows, that you must 
your turn for a statui. 

The German retail bookseller tab t pride in his 

window, and you may expect to see in it the V« 
specimens that his stock As in th 

ry available inch, from bottom to top, is utilized. 
i shelves are improvised, which fairly bend 
their burden of literature. To give variety ami attractive- 

S to the scene, tine engravings, almost al 
Sistine Madonna, and sometimes oil-pain; 
wiched between the books I tutiful quarto juvenile 

publications are thrown open at the finest Must 

while a or map peeps out among the mass, i 

the second-hand, or. as tl 
in ( rermany, antiquarian 

their si 

brii 'hem 



CHRISTMAS IN SHOP AND AT FIRESIDE. 21 

a good supply of new illustrated juvenile books, to present 
as good a window as their modern neighbors. In the anti- 
quarian's shop, books are piled up and wedged in, with here 
and there solitary pyramids, with a compactness far sur- 
passing what we used to see in Gowan's old store in New 
York, and attracting greater and more immobile crowds 
than Nassau-street or Paternoster Row ever dreamed of. 

The booksellers who make the best gleanings during 
this universal harvest are those who reduce their prices 
the lowest, and get the name of selling the cheapest. But 
how can this be known to the general public ? Only by 
extensive advertising. Suppose the Tribune, Times, or 
Herald, should issue two or three supplements every day 
or two, filled with catalogues of all the principal books 
on sale at Harper's, Scribner's, Appleton's, or Hurd and 
Houghton's. Yet that is just what these men do. For 
several weeks before Christmas, nearly a whole side of 
the Frankfort Journal, besides a surfeit of supplements, 
is almost daily occupied by full catalogues of books, rang- 
ing all the way up from six kreutzer to two or three hun- 
dred gulden. 

When any article is bought for a Christmas present in 
Germany, the utmost secrecy is enjoined. Various sub- 
terfuges are resorted to in order that it be brought into 
the house at some hour of the day or night when the one 
for whom it is intended is either absent or asleep.- And 
while the buying and selling are going on, there is a very 
busy plying of needles at home within closed doors. The 
young are making preparations for the older members ; 
the latter are not at all less industrious for the former ; 



UFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

the - ts work for their friends, and parents and chil- 

dren for the servants. Each group I >m, and 

thebusii rapidly on within the 1 tpartnu 

A ku days before my first Chi in Bremen I em- 

ed an opportunity to walk through som< 

light There were no dark nights th< 
we were too far north for that. The natural light, with 
the full glan unity t 

thing to advantage. The toy shops were the centen 
attraction to old and young. In the large w i: 
were trees stationed, with slendi unifyin 

the outmost and uppermost branches. The many little 
cheerful jets shone down against the bright fa the 

happy children, who held their parents' hands and v. 
looking forward to their own good Christi. iich 

might then be hidden in some obscure i 'heir 

home. The trees were hum; with all manner of little 
gifts, each of which seemed I 
parents, for your children's Christmas tn 
maining part of the windows was filled with other 

1 advei it. 

I was struck with surprise, in one inst it the mul- 

tiplicity of objects which can lu 
shop.,! onl\ moderate dimensions. 1 have h.i 

pei i( I the pressure "i 1 in ih- 

tutc and the A< ademy ol M 

when the alternative seemed 

multitv 

but I do n 

l>a< k i ■ m tlii- 



CHRISTMAS IN SHOP AND AT FIRESIDE. 23 

not answer the questions of their customers, much less 
supply them with articles for purchase. When once you 
were inside of the shop, you might ask your neighbors 
when you could get out, but the answer would be one in 
which they would be as painfully interested as yourself. 
The great mistake was made in going in at all. But the 
trained skill in storing that shop with articles for Christ- 
mas use was the great marvel, after all. Every corner 
that was available for the smallest object, either lying or 
pendant, was occupied with something or other. How so 
much could be crowded into so small a space, and how so 
many people could get into the narrow door, and be served 
with any thing whatever, seems still very strange to me. 
I looked from the street toward the upper part of the 
house, and found it to be one of the old style of three or 
four centuries ago, with gable ends, curious wood carving, 
and little peaked windows in front. The rooms were all 
lighted up, and each window was densely filled with its 
Christmas variety of toys as far up as the top of the high- 
est pane of glass. The shop, with its many customers 
inside, and its many more spectators outside, was only 
one of a great number of the same class which I passed 
during a walk of an hour or two in the evening. 

The streets were busy with wagons passing to and fro, 
all laden with heavy and light articles which had been 
bought, and were now passing on to their cheerful mission 
in many houses. I noticed that many new shops were 
just now opened, and I have since learned that, when 
changes are made in business, or a new firm sets up for 
itself, the month or two before Christmas is regarded as 



24 LIFE IN THE FA THERLAND. 

the most auspicious rime The wind he butcher 

shoj ireely less attn than th 

and oth I te little porkers, all the 

spit, were d in the m< able, 

h having a whole lemon in its mouth. Why it \\ 
lemon in ever) and not an orar_ 

coul«l not tell. of handsomely 

were hung the window, and even from one sid 

another of the shop. It was, in a w.»rd, not any more the 
plain shop which had been furnishing your table with 
lor inonth>, but tip ilishment in its holiday spleti 

to which even the slain I were made, by every arti- 

fice, to contribute their ornamental qu< 
The great center ttraction I Bremen 

was .1 store of the better and he which 1 

Paris, and Nuremberg had tilled from basement t 

,\ ith a sup: iristmas mere! 

Dittrich's many times before, but it had I 
my attention. The room which is entered by th< 
door seemed at first to be all there but 

on one side there was another door which led in! 

m, with which then still oth 

in the rear of the fust there w l bich 

led to an entii. \ the 

this the Inch 

riated I alar put 

beneath. Each of tl 

t had it 

the 

on the counters, on ind the 



CHRISTMAS IN SHOP AND AT FIRESIDE. 25 

artificial trees, or on the circular tables. The variety of 
objects for sale appeared endless. One department was 
fancy carriages, which ranged in size from one which you 
could easily put into your pocket, to those large enough for 
practical use. Then there were every conceivable style and 
variety of each size ; and so of other classes of articles. 
There was one room for hardware. Nothing which could 
possibly be desired for a useful or ornamental present in 
that line needed to be asked for in vain. A very beautiful 
room was that in which were the morocco dressing-cases, 
traveling valises, ladies' sewing-cases, writing-desks, and 
similar articles, which had evidently been selected with 
great care, and were now arranged with equally good taste. 
Following a habit which every American who has been 
in Bremen can appreciate, I did not finish my walk with- 
out sauntering to the great squares on which the old 
Cathedral and the City Hall stand. The latter space, 
especially, is still resplendent with its gray stone, mediae- 
val glory. The entire square was surrounded by the pro- 
prietors of different articles for sale. Here were humble 
venders, who were not rich enough to have a shop, but had 
sufficient money to lay in a stock of toys or walnuts, and 
thus to make use of the approaching festive season to en- 
large their slender resources. Some of these persons had 
little booths, lighted up with gay lanterns, and decorated 
with the most attractive articles to the young and old who 
passed by. A large number of poor men sat on old low 
chairs, with bags of walnuts and a little measure in each, 
waiting to sell their stock. To one of the men who sold 
small tapers for Christmas trees, an old woman — most likely 



LIFE TN THE FATHERLAND. 

his companion through the man;. i lowly pil 

— brought a smoking cupof coffee 1 then h 

frame The joy with which he received it, and the smile 
which his smoking torch revealed upon his count 
thing rebuke to the discontent which n 
splendid mansions in evei m of the year. Children 

and parents — the most of whom were in happ. rty — 

1 in groups near the little . wondering at the 

beauty which they saw, but evidently not ei 
who had the better fortune to be 
grotes for toys or nul 

The old Cathedra] was surrounded by the tree mar- 
There were beautiful trees, all the way up in si/e from 
the little branch which a small child could play with, to 
the greal trie which would require an effort to drag thro 
those wide ( rerraan front doors. The scene hen 

worthy tin- study of both moralist and .. The 

sale went on busily; the poor w< ly their 

small tiers for the gladness of their humble ho: 
were tin- rich for their more sumptuousman I ruly, 

the old time-worn figures on the Cathedral in Bremen 
never looked down upon brighter smiles, happici 

tmas tries, than they did that ni^ht. 

W I know that many a ill this 

about Christmas, and regard i". 
V great i B nd all :' 

incut ami <;. n, there i^ a meaning which \ 

old a •• inseparably with Chri i c mean 

at Christ came to the 
should In- happy. I h n no und . not 



CHRISTMAS IN SHOP AND A T FIRESIDE. 27 

* 

one case of intoxication, nothing which would lead one to 
conclude that this festivity is at all associated with any 
form of immorality. On the contrary, as far as appear- 
ances go, the religious sentiment seems to be unusually 
active at this very time. I have never seen more people 
on their way to church than on the Sabbath preceding 
Christmas ; nor have I ever seen so strictly a religious 
Sunday-school exhibition as the one I witnessed on 
Christmas Day, when recitations and songs, full of joy 
and reverent devotion, were made the prelude to the dis- 
robing of a tree which measured nineteen feet in height, 
and shed the brightness of its many lights upon a happy 

throng of old and young. 
2* 



LIFE IN THE J \ND. 



HAP T 1. k I Y. 

A N American who en! ;i wint< 

■**■ with the high wind 

it him, and him about, for weary mont infly 

appi ,th whi( 

as Bremen em ring. 

and heat are i it in ti 

but tlu-iv are 

• spell, with in abundai md then you I 

rain, wind, now and then a 

rtainty as I 
pen next. Th 

the street. The th North and South 

that in summei 11 as in winter it 

out of doors without an umbrell 

then you : 

ain. 
Nothing would content th. 

ourlittl. 

whirh 1 mpellcd t. 

that 

I when that w 

arrivi 1 that wii 

the \\ i the 



A DASH PARIS WARD. 29 

crossed the Rhine at Cologne, and were going over the 
fields of Belgium, that we really felt the coming in of 
genial weather. 

There was good prospect of finding every thing on the 
Champ de Mars, the place where the Exposition was to 
be held, in a state of utter confusion, so uniformly had 
the papers outside of France declared that nothing was 
ready, and that the whole affair gave the promise of a 
ridiculous failure. But there was little truth in the 
reports. To be sure, not all of the buildings around the 
Palace had been completed, neither were all the paintings 
or the statuary in position ; but the preparations were 
much further advanced, taking into account their mag- 
nitude, than could have been expected. The Exposition 
Palace, which was in the middle of the Champ, was of 
oval shape, and modeled after one of the rejected de- 
signs of the Sydenham Crystal Palace in 185 1. The 
open center around which the building was constructed 
was a little plot of grass and flowers, furnishing a welcome 
relief to the eye. The building was divided into circles. 
Starting from the central open space, we came first to the 
inmost circle of chambers, which contained the paintings 
and sculpture of the different nations, each ownership be- 
ing designated over the doorway. Having completed this 
circle, we continued outward, and walked around the sec- 
ond one. This contained the interesting class of articles 
approaching nearest to the fine arts. Thus, by complet- 
ing one circle after another, the outmost one was reached, 
which embraced that portion of the machinery that was 
not in special buildings in the adjacent grounds. The 



30 LIFE IS THE FATHERLAND. 

machinery was in operation, and might be seen to advan- 
cing the high platform, which e 
with the machinery, dividing it into two cir wnd 

the whole building. The restaurants, though a pari 
the : . opened only from the outside. Mow, cut 

these circular suites of rooms into ling 

straight and broad walls from the open mid- 

die through the exterior wall of the edii mds 

outside, and you have the nations. The articles 

on exhibition were the circles ; the i 
The American department had, for somen 'her. 

■•» unduly thrown into the >und Maximilian 

- then in Mexico, and 1 N ained n 

ing by our war. The space to which we were confined 
was altogether too small, and it v. 
this attempt to put Brother Jonathan into 
which he has never been used to, either on 
produced a dispiriting on him. Hut om 

no ground to be ashamed of their represents 
industry in the Exposition. Our ue eml 

Vl . IA sa i ry diversity of ait ivies, and. on ins] 

it was clear enough that these were well worthy . 
placed beside the best fruits of th U of the 

most advanced European nations I noticed that the 
main entrance to the room containing our paint; 
flanked on the right 1>\ a magnificent j 
, Esq., of New 1 

teral Sherman. inch's 

• I; ,\ Mountains." and 
on. 



A DASH PARISWARD. 31 

One morning we took advantage of an early hour, when 
it was raining very hard, to visit the Exposition, and 
enjoy a comfortable stroll through those parts which, be- 
cause of the throng, it was impossible to visit late in the 
day with any comfort. Our luck gave us the opportunity 
to see the Empress Eugenie, who, on our arrival, was 
already inspecting the objects of special interest to her. 
A light rope barrier, stretched across the entrance of one 
of the largest jewelry-rooms, was the only intimation 
to persons near by that she was within, looking at the 
brilliant array of a French artificer, and witnessing the 
cutting of diamonds. There were no bravoes. She was 
plainly clad in a black silk dress, the lower part of which 
had its full share of white Paris mud. Her gloves, of 
undressed kid, looked as if they might have been worn for 
months. It was clear, that in personal appearance she 
had been flattered by none of the portraits in the shop- 
windows, or in Versailles, or the Luxembourg. Her real 
age was about forty-two, and yet she would not be con- 
sidered over thirty, at the furthest. She was of medium 
height, had blonde hair, and a tolerably full face. If there 
was any exception to her rare combination of personal 
charms, it was a slight rotundity of the shoulders. To 
the gentleman who exhibited his jewelry to her she was 
very affable, and expressed her admiration freely. As she 
passed, there was no one who bowed to her whom she did 
not recognize. She was attended by two maids of honor, 
who, in state and rich costume, made ample amends for 
her neglige appearance. No one would suspect that ami- 
able-looking woman of being a thunderbolt of Spanish 



LIFE IN THEFATHl 

. when the n< ruck her, of the man 

. le the Count) 
the Ultram ind the 

ative <»f the broken-down and d< 
the ; 

The Empress 1. . nie had just then I 
of politi 
plications of France with Pi 

: her sen. She was probably mere wrel 
heart than any one who l"..ke<l .it her. for the 

ibout thi i 
and >he had perception enough to k 
she saw it. It was not long, h< 
the violence of the blast. Only th more •■■• 

led to bring about Met/ and Sedan 
i within the portals of Wilhelmshohe ; and I 
v night from her maddened an 
ital t«> modest English I lasting - J 
now belongs t<> hi nd fom r in the 

id of the misfortu Jt) . i 

by one of her t w ipanions in flight H 

i 
from the Emperor and his army, and the in 
wild in the strcel t for 1 

the i : the : 

would | her with his army \ 

and a pledj 

I 
men 

■ 



A DASH PARISWARD. 33 

would have fallen a victim to their rage. Accompanied 
by this man, another gentleman, and Madam Lebreton, 
she reached the street, when the two ladies were left alone 
in order to escape detection. Just as they entered a 
fiacre, a gamin recognized the Empress, ran after the 
vehicle, and shook his fist. But he did not betray her. 
After proceeding some distance the ladies left the fiacre, 
proceeded down a narrow alley to another street, took a 
second conveyance, and drove to the only address the 
Empress remembered — Dr. Thomas W. Evans, the Amer- 
ican dentist. He immediately ordered his horses and car- 
riage and drove with the two ladies as far as the horses 
could go beyond Paris, where other horses and carriages 
were provided. Only for a short distance the three took a 
train. The rest of the journey to Deanville, on the coast, 
was made in wretched carts. At the hotel the fugitive 
Empress feigned sickness, and a little food was taken to 
her, while a gentleman went on board Sir John Burgoyne's 
yacht, which happened to be lying in the harbor, to in- 
quire if he would give her passage across to England. 
Both Sir John and lady expressed their willingness, and 
with great courtesy placed the " Gazelle " at her disposal. 
The Empress, Dr. Evans, and Madame Lebreton em- 
barked at midnight ; but, as there was only little water, 
the yacht could not leave her moorings until morning, 
and the cries of " Vive la Republique " were constantly 
heard. Madame Lebreton was greatly troubled, and con- 
stantly inquired if the yacht would soon be under weigh. 
Eugenie, however, was very calm, and, though ill, slept 
soundly. In clue time the boat reached the English coast. 



LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

Then came a long sus -then a hurried visit to the 

-ray and silent prisoner in Germany — and then the q 

if the three exiles, and now of two, at Chiselhi 
But we must return to the I sition. To many 

sons the buildings outside the Palace were more inte 

•ban the Palace itself. Some were 

ind others near at hand, hut all connected by winding 
walks, with each intervei: >und covered with 

-, flowers, fountains, monuments, and statuar. 
most splendid of | the Imperial Pavilion, 

which was shaped something like a flat clover-leaf, and 

adorned with more rich ami ex; furniture I 

could make the hundred peasant homes happy. There 
were many model buildings; such as a plan for an im- 
proved style «>f tenant-house-, a Turkish mosqu< 
scale, a Turkish school, a Pompeian museum, and a 5 
school-hous< ■• building was hibi- 

tion, by work in relief, of the I 

district of the Sue/ Canal. There was an Egyptian tem- 
ple, sixty-three feet wide and ninety-ti 

rounded by immense columns, red on all 
■ . root by hi< 

entrance guarded by an a\enue of in mite 

Sphinx. < >ne could imagine himself •>• 

Tin- Mexi" an temple was one of thi 

It was a resurrection Oi the temple of th. 

All the attendants m the 

Iritish and I 
ould hi 
in which it had as yet been print Oil. I 



A DA SH PARIS WARD. 3 5 

was a house where the Scriptures were gratuitously dis- 
tributed in separate, books in all the principal languages. 
The German could get Romans at one window ; the 
Frenchman, John's Gospel at another ; the Spaniard, the 
Psalms at another ; and the Italian, Hebrews at a fourth. 
The Religious Tract Society of London had a house for 
the free distribution of its publications. One of the build- 
ings contained a miniature Jewish tabernacle, and plans 
of the architecture of all the Bible lands. This was one 
of the best-prepared and most valuable objects to be seen 
at the Exposition. It would have been an ornament to 
the best theological museum in any country. It was, in 
fact, a museum of itself. The Evangelical Hall was to 
me, however, by far the most interesting object of the en- 
tire Exposition. It occupied a central position, and Prot- 
estant sendees were held in it, in various languages, during 
the summer. The dedication was a scene of great inter- 
est. We heard William Monod, Lord Shaftesbury, the 
aged Guizot, and other men of note, make addresses. On 
leaving the hall we made the acquaintance of Emile Cook, 
who later, in 1873, became one of the delegates from 
France to the New York session of the Evangelical Alli- 
ance, and on his return home suffered a double shipwreck 
on the " Ville du Havre " and the " Loch Earn," and 
afterward died through his exposure, in Nimes, in South- 
ern France. The smile he wore when we first saw him 
lost none of its sweetness by his sufferings and dangers 
in the Commune, and the sorrows through which he had 
to pass as a struggling French Protestant. 



LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 



CHAP! Ik \'. 

M ROSS l k.w l- i" STR kSBOUl 

T N preparing to leave Paris f< »r the journey home* 
*■ and workward, the road t id then 

the Rhine presented the strongest inducements. The 
winds through the section celebrated f* »r chamj 
There is no doubt that nearly all the wine which 
dined lure i- used for admixture; the 
a high price can ever buy the vei . 

even in France ami Germany. What shall 

New York? There are districts in France that naturally 
produce poor wine, which is caiclnlly in 

champagne, and is sold as such, after havii 
through an apparatus which charges it with 
In this • i-* bottled, label 

and in ten minutes is ready for the market. Tin 

attempt made in France t" keep thi 

it to he ..ne in any part of the world. Tl 

in 1 id other Frciu h cities, whh 

the adul elation ! :t. 

< >!ie o| the most obsCUl 
of the Meuse whit h the rail 

The little chu 

that half hide all humbl It 

: ;hbnring field that tin- simpl 



ACROSS FRANCE TO STRASBOURG. 37 

a shepherdess until, as she professed, she heard in the 
gloomy woods near by — the Nemus Canutum of the Ro- 
mans, and the Bois Chi'nus of the French — the voices of 
St. Margaret and St. Catharine calling and counseling 
her to deliver France from the English conqueror, a re- 
sult which was reached by the coronation of Charles VII. 
at Rheims. The only favor which she would accept for 
her services was that her native village, obscure little 
Domremy, should be exempted from taxation. So, from 
her time down to the French Revolution, the space oppo- 
site Domremy, in the registry-book of taxes, was filled by, 
•' Exempt for the sake of the Maid." 

In the neighborhood of Nancy, the face of the country 
becomes more picturesque. The number of old walled 
towns, in all their mediaeval simplicity, increases. The 
hill that is not crowned with a village has at least a cas- 
tellated ruin which may appropriately be compared with 
not the least along the Rhine. The castles are in hope- 
less decay in nearly every case, and half overgrown with 
ivy. Many of the great old archways are still preserved, 
and may be seen far in the distance. The peasants were 
plowing their historic fields in a half-asleep way, and used 
the agricultural implements of the olden time. The plow, 
which was steadied in part by an old-fashioned pair of 
wheels, was drawn by two horses. The women worked 
with the men, as in Germany. There were very few chil- 
dren in the fields, a fact which may be accounted for by 
the new stringent educational laws of France. All the 
men wore blue blouses. 

Nancy is a very beautiful city. It has a population of 



LIFE IN THE FATHERLA 

I is the capita': The inhab- 

itants arc very proud of their home. Ulty 

as unsui At .i 3t ai..n near the city 

Old peasant man. clad in the inevitable blue blou 

tt next to me in the nd havi inch 

muff— which he seemed to consider an introduction — 

commenced conversation about the beauty of N 

>• people of Paris think their city very hi. the 

Old man. with an expression of COI « play! 

his ruddy but they don't know any thin. 

|y Nan 
than our Nancy ? Ju how it lies— right in the mid- 

dle of that rich plain! Where are you from? 
hope you can stay awhile in Nancy, and 
place in the world!" The old man went all the 
Strasbourg, and he proved to be an entertain 
uninstructive 

] ir want of tin. '■ v we w 

t,. be satisfied with the accounts of t': 
the old pei-. int. until the oppoituil 
more the 1. of the country in th< 

siping old 1 Lit. 

1'- 

worth a long journey. Ha> 

' 

' 
I imnu 

the Ml 

id then 

N 



ACROSS FRANCE TO STRASBOURG. 39 

the spire could be seen above the high-peaked houses, un- 
til reaching the short street in front of the Minster. The 
effect of the first view is almost overwhelming. The mul- 
titude of elaborately carved figures over the deeply reced- 
ing doorways, the infinitely varied and rich open stone- 
work above these, and the magnificent spire, four hundred 
and sixty-eight feet high, standing in kingly majesty above 
all, produce an impression rarely equaled on witnessing a 
triumph of human skill. A stairway of three hundred and 
thirty steps leads to the platform, or roof. On this the 
guide has his house, where he and his family had lived, as 
he told us, twenty-three years. The last half hour of 
clear sunlight afforded time enough to enjoy the wide 
prospect. Strasbourg, with its curious bridges, picturesque 
old dwellings, neat little squares, gray churches of a far 
past day, and muddy, winding little 111, lies below. In the 
east, the Black Forest extends many miles, and finally 
bounds the horizon. Away off in the west, the Vosges 
Mountains, standing out like sculpture, forbid a wider 
view of the Alsace ; while in the south, the Jura range 
may be distinctly seen. 

The next morning there was a funeral service in the 
Minster, at which we were present, and heard the organ. 
The interior of this marvelous edifice is in keeping with its 
exterior. The marigold windows of richly-stained glass ; 
the graceful and luxuriant stone tracery ; the great Gothic 
columns, supporting their harmonious systems of arches ; 
the long and unobstructed aisles ; the celebrated astro- 
nomical clock ; the immense organ, with its hidden world 
of melody ; and that exquisitely beautiful and lonely pillar, 



LIFE IN THE FATHERLANi 

ornamented from base t«i capital with statw 

among which Sabina, the dai the 

Minster, and the only one who could complete the in- 

ipted plan of her father, stands, leaning on h 
looking intently through the centuries at 
her mute and motion kmen. 

.ere, indeed, has been the change in Si the 

itiful, since that calm and 
bloody chasm between the 

tells the whole story, 
the fearful French losses. It 

September 2J t 1870, when the white fla 

the Minster spire, that the people felt that the. 

Crawl nut «>| their cellars and e.r with 

ty h>r six weeks. l",,r th;: ' 
ir<»n hail had hurtled on roof and CO The 

number of the German official paper pul I in the 

its surrender contained a ; lling in- 

~l, namely, the numb 
into thi the bombardment, 

and fori runs were employed by the 

the Prussian side, 30 long, and 12 Bh 
lour pound. 

twent) -five-pound* pound 

on the Baden side. .\ twent) iund m 

pound 1: [6 rifled t .•. 

four-pound* ra From tl 

>m th. 
gun 



ACROSS FRANCE TO STRASBOURG. 41 

Strasbourg cost the Germans about two millions of thalers, 
every shot representing the worth of twelve thalers. The* 
actual bombardment lasted thirty-one days ; the average 
number of missiles sent each day into the city and fortress 
was 6,249; in every hour, 269; in the minute, from 4 
to 5. The total number of houses destroyed was 600 ; 
inhabitants killed, 300 ; wounded, 2,000 ; homeless and 
breadless citizens, from 10,000 to 12,000. 

On the 2 1st of August preceding the surrender, public 
service had been held for the last time in all the churches ; 
then these were either closed altogether, or only served to 
shelter the helpless and destitute. But the people showed 
a disposition for prayer-meetings ; and one was organized 
on the 4th of September, which continued on week-days 
until the surrender of the city. On the very first Sunday 
of the service in St. Thomas's church, a shell struck the 
chief door a few minutes before the close of the worship, 
and on the following day one fell directly within the 
church. 

Singularly enough, almost the very first shells that fell 
into the city destroyed the edifices of learning and the 
rich libraries. On the second night of the bombardment, 
a bright light overspread the whole city, changing night 
into day. A thrill of horror pervaded the entire pop- 
ulation when it was known to proceed from the New 
Church, formerly the Dominican Church, but since 1868 
the chief place of Protestant worship in Strasbourg. This 
was the scene of Tauler's memorable sermons, of Media's 
defense of the doctrines of the Reformation, and, later, 
of the eloquent utterances of Blessig and Redslob. Even 



42 I. Ill: IN THE FATHERLAND. 

the M>li<l old walls, for the most part, fell, ami no*. 
left of altar or pulpit, of the re: tie pain" 

the walls, or of Silbcrmann's, celebrated organ. Tauler's 

monument ami the torn and Redstob were 

almost the only objects that escaped the flames. In the 
choir of thi Church were the 

the city — the Public Library and the Semi: y — 

and of both these nothing has been left but a pile of cin- 
ders. A friend, one of the first to enter the city with the 
German troops, has given me, 

res from a rich vellum missal I he trao 
distinct. On the same night that the Library burned, the 
finest houses in the city fell I he fury of the boi 

The Aubette, situated on the Kk the 

City Museum of Paintings and Sculptures, fell 

the flames. Hie Minster alone remained 

many sad t: Bhot and shell are visible, the w 

spire of the finest compld rt in the 

world arc still standi:..,. I >n the night of the . 
August it was on tire, but, I 
theless rescued. 

M Colani was th J Light of the 

al Seminary, which adjoined the i 
III. .in. is Church stood, and. in part, wa burned. 

I had become acquainted in various v. 
\. but chiefly th' his •• k 

ma) b 

of the fust in one of the mil 

i Ml 

M ( olani t the h 



ACROSS FRANCE TO STRASBOURG. 43 

" New Theology," as its adherents term it. On the morn- 
ing when I heard him, he was lecturing on Moral Philoso- 
phy. His lecture-room might hold seventy-five students, 
but there were but twenty-five present. Some took full 
notes, but others only made a stroke of the pen now and 
then. M. Colani looked as if yet on the sunny side of 
forty ; he had coal black hair, a fine eye, and a very fine 
expression. He probably had a brief before him, but did 
not use it. His voice was not monotonous or harsh. He 
rather talked than lectured, and looked at the students at 
his left nearly all the time. 

M. Colani has exhibited great energy from boyhood. 
When very young, he hoped to be professor in Strasbourg, 
and he worked for it. There was strong opposition to 
him, b.ut at last he carried his point. He is a popular 
preacher, perhaps the best of all the New Theologians. 
Poor in boyhood, he has fought his way up to an easier 
life. As for M. Colani's capacities and pluck, he deserves 
high praise ; but as to his mistaken theology, the storms 
of time will serve it no better than they have treated all 
the other pasteboard houses that his theological ancestry 
have planned and reared. 



44 /-/* 



CHAF1 ER \'I. 

r I ^HE northward rail.'. the 

* ^t hank of the : in lull ■■ 

and . r] >untains, and sometimes win 

theii I • 

half justice to tl 
at the outskirts of the plain in which 
and termina it, whei 

an<l leaves the Rhine no more. 

the whole disl 
where the real beauties of I 

it 1: 

Hut th< bined in it 

• 
homi i ho 

• with him, th.t i immo\ 

mntains and beautifu 
• 

In Th«- olden ti; 
i mount 

t in turn fi 



. NORTHWARD BY THE RHINE. 45 

— an ivied and tottering witness of the long-past and 
almost stagnant centuries of romantic but cruel glory. 
Some of the towns at the base of the mountains were so 
often besieged and retaken that they never knew what 
security was. Landau, for example, has been an object of 
contest in every great European war, from the fifteenth 
century ; and its history is little more than a succession of 
sieges, blockades, bombardments, captures, and surrenders. 
During the Thirty Years' War it was taken eight times 
by the troops of Count Mansfeldt ; by the Spaniards, 
Swedes, Imperialists, and French. Its history since then 
has been but little more peaceful. 

There are several important ruins whose history, if writ- 
ten at length, would require many a page. But there is 
none that can be regarded with greater interest than the 
Castle of Trifels, which was once the prison of Richard 
Cceur de Lion. The storms of war and time have broken 
down stone after stone of the thick walls and compact 
archways, and the only tolerably perfect fragment left is 
the one square tower, which stands out clearly in front of 
the dark green background of the Haardt. The subter- 
ranean dungeon in which the imprisoned king was con- 
fined, and watched night and day by guards with drawn 
swords, is still pointed out. First captured by the tfeach- 
erous Leopold of Austria, and basely sold by him to the 
Emperor Henry VI. for thirty thousand marks of silver, 
he was kept a prisoner in the Trifels dungeon from 1 192 
to 1194. The story of his release is one of the most ro- 
mantic in history. His faithful minstrel-friend, Blondel, 
went from prison to prison, with harp in hand, hoping 



i the li I he 

I 
merrier 

told nd and his jt mi thai 

. 

him k 
• the imperial jailer, Henry 
him <>n u A 

r royal captiv< 

nan em pei 

I .is m 
held I 
deposited here, as the secures! 

the 

ruin. 

. 
stripped, and its marl 

I Ik- ruin 

■ 

■ 
and 

■ 



NORTHWARD BY THE RHINE. 47 

west of the city, is still standing. While resting on the 
seat around its great trunk, one hot and dusty summer aft- 
ernoon, in the student days of auld lang syne, a plain peas- 
ant told me the tradition of the tree : that Luther, on his 
way to the Diet at Worms, was met at that spot by the 
friends who told him that if he went into the city he would 
be killed ; and that he replied, " I will go to Worms though 
there are as many devils within its walls as there are tiles 
on its houses ! " " The Reformer had a little riding-switch 
in his hand," continued the peasant, " that he had pulled 
from a tree in the Thuringian Forest, through which he 
had passed. He quietly stuck it into the ground, and said, 
' As this little switch will become a great tree, so will the 
Protestant Church in time become very great' ' : 

We had a couple of hours to take a hasty view of May- 
ence, which I have since supplemented by several visits. 
The old Cathedral is one of the most gloomy churches 
conceivable. It is very large, and its history, dating from 
the tenth century, is interesting ; but the miniature Virgin 
Marys and the crucified Saviours in its frequent altars 
were dressed off in such fanciful baby-clothes, faded paper 
flowers, and dusty tinselry, that one scarcely knew which was 
the more disgusting, the heathenish idolatry or the ridicu- 
lous taste. The floor consists largely of burial slabs, the in- 
'scriptions on which are nearly worn off by the roughly-shod 
soldiers who have been quartered there in war-time, and 
by many a dead generation of worshipers. The tablets 
around the church are very legible ; one of these is to the 
memory of Charlemagne's third wife, Fastrada. Through 
the " beautiful doorway " we passed into a large court, one 



48 UFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

.siik- of which was limited by the church, and the other 
thro Thf 

annuul the cloist them an Italian appe 

The broad stone loisters, like that of the 

church, was nothing but dosely-plai • the 

dust of hundreds of dead and forgottei 

An at their day for their devotion I boli- 

cism or their bravery on the battle-field 

About dusk We reached Bingen, on the I 
we left the cars and selected a hoi r the night The 

moon shone clearly down <>n the ru: 

and on the little square Mouse Tower, in the nriddli 

the river, whose legend has been beautifully n 

Southey in his poem on the "Tradition of I 

ul of the long journey of the day, and the 

remaining weariness from a 

in Paris, we could not leave the banks of the Rhini 
Bingen until late in the night Th< 

foamed and hi- they broke 

nestling along the ri e the I 

the hot! re put out. and the I 

tjni. It was a rich U had, 

the m dit Rhine until far into thi 

Wh< returned to the hoi 

of pi l should 

hour, and pay him 

H 
But | 

: 



NORTHWARD BY THE RHINE. 49 

The next morning we took the first boat down the river. 
The steamer was not equal to our " Dean Richmonds," 
" Daniel Drews," or Sound boats. The morning mist 
half hid for awhile some of the highest terraces along the 
mountain banks of the river, but it obscured no castle, 
and soon disappeared before the bright sun. It required 
a careful look-out in order to single out the castles as we 
quickly glided by them. Rheinstein is one of the best 
preserved. It stands on the sharp point of a rock, and 
has been restored to its original shape. Then came the 
picturesque, turreted ruin of Sonneck ; the Devil's Ladder, 
crowned by the Castle of Nollingen ; Stahleck, whose lofty 
Gothic, pointed windows still retain in a perfect condition 
the most delicate tracery ; the Pfalz, rising like a water- 
deity from the middle of the river, where Louis le Debon- 
naire retired to die, " lulled by the soothing music of the 
gurgling waters ;" the Castles of Gutenfels, Schonberg, 
Reichenberg, the Cat, and the Rheinfels ; then Lahneck, 
and, last before reaching Coblentz, Stolzenfels, (Proud 
Rock.) Opposite Coblentz stands the German Gibraltar, 
Ehrenbreitstein, (Honor's Broad Stone.) Below Coblentz 
are the Castles of Hammerstein, Rheineck, Rolandseck, 
and the famous Drachenfels, (Dragon's Rock.) Each of 
these castles, and many of the lesser ones which I have 
not named, have a very interesting history, which it would 
require volumes to give in detail. But it is the same old 
mediaeval story of love, hate, war, plunder, secret murder, 
and occasional self-sacrifice. There is a philosophy and 
progressive utility in history, we must all grant ; but 
the man who can prove how these robber-knights of the 



50 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

Rhine have contributed to the fund of human development 
deserves a prize from the French . my. But •• 

be utilitarian in the pi Mich rare natural beauty 

and rich historical Rather, let i. with 

Planche, the tenderest o£ all Rhenish minstn 

ich ami i 
Thy cheerful I 

Thy rude ravines, thy verdant i . 
Thy golden hills with gar! 
Thy giant crags with I 

" 1 he Rhine ' < • u : • 

. that fair river's rival run? 
Where dawn 

1 in >uch changeful 

. 
Like yon green, glancing, glork-us Khii.t 

•• Born h here 

I ih the infant rh 

1 

And ina! 

■ 

We :• ; • 

buildings had 

table l 

autl •!. VV< I 



NORTHWARD BY THE RHINE. 51 

other books, lives in a plain, modest dwelling in the newer 
part of the city. I had a special interest in seeing him, for 
I had long been translating his " Commentary on Romans," 
and breaking his sesquipedalian periods into many frag- 
ments. He lives within unpleasant hearing of the railroad 
whistle, but as he is a man of progressive nature, and knows 
how to push his way well through the great theological 
crowd of Germany, he does not despise proximity to the 
symbol of modern speed. He enjoys the good fortune to 
have a daughter who knows where every book in his libra- 
ry belongs, who is the only one permitted to touch the 
theologian's books and papers, and knows enough of her 
father's business, studies, and plans to aid him by her taste, 
industry, and reliable fidelity. We saw in the University 
the lecture-room where Lange reads. The desks and seats 
are ink-covered and mutilated to a degree worthy our most 
successful congressional whittler. Let any one who would 
form a correct idea of the contentment of the learned men 
of Germany, walk into this lecture-room and see for himself 
that the greatest commentator in Europe reads his lectures 
to an eager auditory from a diminutive desk no larger than 
the frail stand which supports a chorister's note-book, and 
sits meanwhile on a narrow, unpainted, three-legged stool, 
which is so uncomfortably gauged as to make its occupant 
neither sit nor stand, but do half of both. How Lange, or 
any man but an acrobat, can keep his equipoise on such a 
nondescript stool, and read from such an aspen-leaf desk, is 
more than I can easily imagine. But of his doing it, the 
well-used and antiquated appearance of both are ample 

proof. 

a* 



52 1.1: l. IN THE FATHERLAND. 



N 



CHAPTER VII. 

AND 9ERVANT8. 

O strai I rmany f<>r 

length of time, and form even a ra int- 

ance with the citizens, without becoming in 
the contentment, frugality, and union usually 
the German doi The family of many a man 

doing a large busii id moving in s< 

ibility, often o but on< 

r n is furnished wit: I simpli 

sition to occupy the « 
Just enough room t, and 1 

generally much smaller than Amei 

ire all thai d. A in- 

• 
with the thought of getting out of I 
into • of buj 

I tion, "D the 

morearisto 
on a fashionabl 
• 

he indulges in 

,n iinin 

eithci h 

i 



MEALS AND SERVANTS. 53 

quite above material pleasures — is to store his cellar with 
wines of the oldest vintages, and to surround himself with 
an abundance of servants. 

The breakfast is very simple — indeed, it is never called 
breakfast, but only coffee. Not an inch will the real Ger- 
man move from his house, or scarcely in it, until he has 
had his coffee, which is accompanied by a biscuit or two, 
without butter. The scholar will not open a book, or 
take up his pen, until he has had this light repast. At 
ten o'clock, a lunch of bread and cheese, or something of 
a similar character, is generally taken. The dinner, inva- 
riably introduced by soup, consists of substantial and 
nutritious dishes, and closes with bread and cheese. In 
the middle of the afternoon coffee is again taken, and a 
light tea, at about half past six, closes the meals of the 
day. In summer afternoons many families take their 
coffee in little arbors in the front garden. The garden 
may be very small, but, by dint of management, enough 
of its narrow dimensions are subsidized into space for a 
little table, surrounded by half a dozen seats, over which 
rises a vine-covered lattice. Where there is no spare 
ground, but the veranda reaches the street, even one end 
of the veranda itself is often divided into a little room, 
which is half screened from the street by some ingenious 
device, and supplied with chairs, table, and pictures. 
These pleasant little nooks are usually occupied a large 
part of the afternoon by the ladies, in pleasant summer 
weather, who there converse, sew, sip their coffee, and enter- 
tain their friends, and, in the evening, are joined by the 
gentlemen, on their return from their places of business. 



LIFE IX 77//; FATHERLA 

ne, in his "Ami Family in Genii 

the only author 1 k who does jusl 

rman servant led in . more 

rly perfect than one of any other nationality. There 
never w r illusion. Prom the time an Ameri 

lands on the Continent, the probability is thai lifn- 

culty in obtaining good servants will be found jusl 

: there as in An: We have never I 

domestics than during our German resjd* ! 

tainly heard as many lamenl r inferi 

that side of the Atlanl an equal 

The truth is, that a lai if the I 

lay by their sa-. r man) and nosooi 

gather up enough t<» pay their p than t': 

America. When they read) this country they imm< 
ately think of independence and matrimoi 
jewels that we brought home from the i nd with 

formed intimacies on shipboard with it men 

had n< nd the re.sult they 

lived with us but a month after reaching thi 

Th lit and sudden chang in Am 

i. an families are not known I :1 to 

enter ..r leave a p] employment is tin 

or t! r, but the hirii 

the and mai lies en 

six months. r, in a 
the) 

■ 
thjc< 

put in prison li you (1 



MEALS AND SERVANTS. 55 

three months to get a new home, she can make you pay 
her full wages and board for that length of time. Thus, 
nothing is gained on either side by the premature sunder- 
ing of relations, and both parties are compelled, in self- 
defense, to exercise great forbearance. 

The wages of a servant doing general house-work in a 
small family average from three to six thalers a month. 
This has the appearance of being a small sum, but, if all the 
perquisites are taken into consideration, there is little dif- 
ference between the wages there and in New York. 

I will' mention a few of these perquisites, though it 
must not be understood that the category is by any means 
exhausted. Just as soon as you hire a girl for work in 
your family, you must give her a thaler to bind the bar- 
gain. Then, as soon as she enters your service, you must 
pay two thalers to the hospital, which is conducted very 
well, and whither she is to be taken, free of further charge, 
in case of sickness. If you are invited out to an enter- 
tainment, you are expected to leave a thaler in the hand of 
the domestic who was the first to welcome you at the door, 
and the last, after finding your hat and coat, to see you from 
it. When Christmas comes, you are further expected to 
give a sum ranging from five to twelve or fifteen thalers, 
accompanied with a present from each member of the family. 
When the Year Market arrives, any less present than a new 
dress is not considered respectable. Every time a new 
" olive-plant " takes its place in your domestic circle, you 
must give the aforementioned individual a new dress, and, 
no matter how many servants may be in your employ, each 
one must receive the same favor. If the servant is the 



5 r J LIFE IN THE FA THERLAND. 

lucky individual to ir child's first tooth, nothing but 

a dress, or its equivalent, is regarded a worthy remunera- 
tion for the valuable dis< It" this present is with- 
held, the child to whom the tooth beloi 
least by one individual, never t<> prosper. 

In addition to these things, the servant in 
mei tees from certain tradesmen. If she 

the baker for bread every day. she S a percent 

lor her bringing it - it. When N 

r's Day comes, the accumulated bills for the who] 
the past year begin to rain in on you fol nt l! 

thin-' is bought after that day, and it is not paid for on the 
Spot, the German tradesman docs not ask for 
nor docs he seem to want it. until the fol! 
when tin- bill com< the middle of January, whei I 

the bills have been brought in.it is not I the 

ion having to pay them to take them hii 
them ; s ive your credit, 

ant. who arranges the whole matter, and bl 

you i . 

at the option of the t: in. A bill 

5 to the -ill settling his bill at 1< 
so with the baker, and th 

It plain, from this arrangement, that tl 

. 

arc in. than I 

Hut. 

• intrusting the n 
bu( h hai ttlemenf 



MEALS AND SERVANTS. . S7 

tions. If a servant leaves home without the consent of 
her employer, she only gets more inextricably involved in 
a net-work of trouble with every step she takes. She 
cannot even ride on the cars without a traveling-pass, and 
this would be impossible to obtain if her record was not 
perfectly clear where she had been employed. 

In consequence of the large number of perquisites 
which the German servants receive, the whole of the 
wages, and often some of the money received as presents, 
can be placed in the savings-bank. Many of the German 
servants never expect to lay out one cent of the money 
received as wages. The attention of a number of wealthy 
Germans has been directed to the wants of superannuated 
and infirm servants, and, in a number of German cities, 
there is a special fund for their relief. 



/./. ;.\7>. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

SH A Dl 

APR( '.MI MAT thing that 
an American in Germany, 
little insight into the life of the • 

I 

: ' . .. 

time, to the vei 

dren, than there. They make them 
with their j I ;lk with tl. 

i or journ< 

i will 
!.. In n I 

• her tumin 

He him, 
him \\i 

juvcnil 

-as 



OTHER SHADES OF GERMAN LIFE. 59 

naturally promotes other inquiries and gives stimulus to 
the mind. 

One of the causes of the equality between the old and 
young lies in the fact that the child — at any rate the 
eldest boy — is expected to follow his father's business, and 
must early share his plans. The same house, the same 
employment, and I should not at all wonder if sometimes 
the same generations of customers, are identified with the 
same family and name, from century to century, in defiance 
of changes of governments. If Luther and Melanchthon 
should rise from the stone floor of the old Castle Church 
in Wittenberg, and take a shopping stroll together, it 
would not be unlikely that they could buy books, sta- 
tionery, clothing, and groceries, and get a large class of 
wants supplied, at about the same shops that they had 
patronized three hundred years ago. 

But there is a far deeper cause — the Germans love chil- 
dren, and the more they have the greater their joy. This 
was the case as long ago as the time of Tacitus, when 
they were in their barbarous period, and has been declared 
by historians and expressed in legislation at various in- 
tervals since then.* So soon as another child is added to 
the number, the father is expected to communicate by let- 
ter the fact to all his near and remote relatives and friends, 
and in due time he has every reason to expect congratu- 
latory letters from them'in return. The act is stated in 

* Numerum liberorum finire, aut quemquam exagnatis necare, flagitium 
habetur: plusque ibi boni mores valent, quam alibi bonse leges. — De Mori- 
bus GermanontHi, cap. xix. Compare the many safeguards provided for 
the young by the Salic law. Tit. xxviii. De Homicidiis Parvulorum. 



LIFE IN 11 IND. 

the papers, and then more '. The 1 

rly smothered with 

hi( h is . iihin a 

ftcr birth. 
friends from far and near i 
brill irae kind, usualh im- 

tely put oul >und i' the ful 

benefit <-i the little recipient The 

1. the nin- 

ain, and then (. 
con 'ii. 

( )ne of the beautii 
v hour at which tl 

in th< 
tures begin at six, or tl . and tl 

annoum 
• ■ • 

inn Jnment, 

1 ' ■ 

just before retiring, and 
'• \\ hat on earth must th 
tl 

. ■ 

i 



SHADES OF GERMAN LIFE. 6l 

without beer or wine. Bread is always supplied by the 
baker, usually twice a day. We did not eat a hot 'biscuit 
for five years, less because we did not want the article, 
than because no baker could, or would, supply it. Baking 
is a flourishing and lucrative business. Once I told an 
enterprising young baker that he ought to go to America, 
for he could make his fortune there. 

" Not I," he answered ; " the business is not respectable 
enough there ; for the bakers only make cake, and the 
people bake all their bread at home ! " 

But little confectionery is used in Germany ; children 
do not get accustomed to the taste. Fruit cake and pound 
cake are very seldom seen, and only on festive occasions 
does even light cake find its way to a German table. 

In Frankfort all our milk was supplied by little carts, 
with only a few cans, drawn by donkeys. In some towns 
it is drawn to customers' doors by dogs. Women gener- 
ally serve it out. 

The art of keeping a hotel and conducting a shop is 
carried to great perfection. A lady from Europe, who 
was once in New York, told me that it seemed to her, 
when shopping in our metropolis, that all the clerks were 
" angry with her." In Europe, and particularly in Ger- 
many, the customer is treated with the greatest suavity 
and attention. Every care is taken that your exact want 
be supplied, so that you come again, and keep coming. 
If you buy nothing, there is seldom the least change in 
the shopkeeper's demeanor. The person who has waited 
on you generally comes from behind the counter, attends 
you to the door, and closes it after you — and this whether 



G 2 LIFE IN 1H I: FATHERLAND. 

you buy <>r not All parcels must be - • home. 

li \..u buy a quire of paper, the shopkeeper will u 

ling it to your house. At least, such has been m\ 
It i-> not considered refined t< 
all. An umbrella or cane is the most that a gentleman is 
expected to burden himself with. I was a dull ur in 

forming to this custom, and often paid the pen 
carrying home a little package by having 
children look at me in wonder. Y->u ar< 
off your hat on entering a shop, and keep it off until 
leave You are treated with marked disapproval it 

enter a banking-house. <>r any police ernme: 

my kind, with undoffed 1. 
The shops are generally conducted by youi ien. I 

suppose that nine tenths, at least, of the shopkee] 
Frankfort are women, and that they do their w 
one can doubt wh< to buy. The mai 

the ladies. A in. in is never expected 

his wife But Americans will never learn tl 

taking up your residence in a German town i 
ted i'> ch \ • : • 

in. ike the first call alv. will get none But that 

lust i all is ver) 

only on a formal anil sin. iint- 

inust th all d< 

times painfull) puncl 
mornii 
1 1 you mak< 

must m. ike youi i 
VOU must -how, b\ a pmmpt ' all. tii 



SHADES OF GERMAN LIFE. 63 

and wish to continue the old relations. The forenoon — 
say about eleven or twelve o'clock — is the fashionable vis- 
iting time. New-Year visits are not so common there as 
in America. It is quite customary, instead of calling per- 
sonally, to send your card by a special messenger. This 
means congratulation, and every thing else that is implied 
in a personal visit. 

The clergy are a more secluded class in Germany than 
with us. They dare not, as a rule, touch political ques- 
tions, unless on the Government side ; for their positions 
are dependent on the consistories, in most instances, and 
the consistories are controlled by people in sympathy with 
the Government, or connected directly with it. The sala- 
ries are not so high as an American expects, but there are 
more perquisites. One of the oldest, most popular, and 
most learned pastors of Frankfort receives a salary equal 
to only five hundred and sixty dollars, American gold, 
besides fuel and gas. But he never performs a baptism, 
attends a funeral, or hardly any pastoral office, without 
a douceur. There are generally a senior and a junior 
pastor, who preach alternately, the junior being always 
expected to step into the senior's place in due time. 
When pastors become infirm they are "pensioned," and 
have no more care. Then, like Bushnell, they often go to 
writing books. The hour of service is nine or ten in 
the morning, and four or five in the evening. Our popu- 
lar evening service is not known. The churches close at 
such an hour that the attendants — sometimes the pastor 
as well — can go to the theater afterward. A clergyman's 
presence at a place of social^ entertainment is never con- 



LIFE IN THE FATHER!. .WD. 

sidered a requisite I have frequently • I the 

chasm between the German cl< nd laity, in tlieir 

entire social life, is very much r than in the United 

Stal 

I ..-rv theological candidate must have pre 
through the University in order to ne. When 

a clergyman once finds a pulpit, he can l<-nk upon 
his permanent home, if he be at all ji 
American thirst f<>r novelty and ch 

the slightest pretext, has never yet M 

Literary merit is consider) idvanta 

didate. When a German writes a book, all 

ire him. Pulpit e 
tor must be the only one to look his people in the I 
1 1,- always preaches without n 
ever, betra lerally a »i. n. 

No r must he apathy with I 

A leaning toward I 
distinct 01 
man pastor his position, his 
1 hand extend* 
The "law's delu\ rihlc and painful 

tter n. 

ouble the sum al 

it and the pri'. \ 

1 without a • the 



SHADES OF GERMAN LIFE. 65 

procure twenty-three different certificates before they 
could be pronounced "man and wife!" The most of 
these, of course, had to be paid for. I was fined once for 
not registering the entrance of a servant-girl into my 
household within a few specified days after the occurrence, 
and that when I was from home. I was told that impris- 
onment, or appeal and a regular lawsuit, would be the only 
relief. If you find an article — say a watch-key — in the 
street, you are expected to take it to the police-bureau, 
and that watch-key is regularly advertised. If no owner 
claims it, it is returned to you within just two weeks, or if 
you are so charitable, it is sold for the benefit of the city 
poor. On going to any public office, you have sometimes 
to wait hours for admission. I have learned never to go 
without a book or two in my pocket. Mr. Greeley could 
have gotten through all the newspapers in the pockets of 
his three coats during the process. When once you are 
in, you are treated very politely, as a general rule, and as 
leisurely as if the very sun was standing still, and nobody 
waiting to follow you. To an American, all this is very 
tantalizing ; but the Germans — the storm spare their pa- 
tient souls ! — never seem to be worried, or to imagine 
that they are losing in this way big slices out of their 
life-time. 



66 LIFE IN THE I Mill.. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THl 

Till taking l " l l 

understood in German) toa remarkable 
sooi bruary furnish an hour <'i- t 

sunshine and spring-like air, than plain i 

m wh.» hopes to reali 
a little patch of ground, 1 in pi \ it for 

fruitfulness. Indeed, one is reminded, all through the 
winter, of the garden work <>f the coming sprii 
thing that pos the sli amounl 

nutriment i I with the 

the- ground during the- int< 
throughout all thi month 

tion <1" m i" b I, when 

. whetht 
But the art 
with the kind of plants lust suited to tl: the 

son, that a subsequent 
injuriously an. that those pro 

t.. plant. In I 
than the Cold •' 



THE GERMANS AND THEIR GARDENS. 67 

conclude that every plant is killed. I thought so, for the 
appearance forbade a different conclusion. But two or 
three weeks of real spring weather showed that the gar- 
deners knew just what they were about, and that their 
plants seemed to be really more vigorous in consequence 
of their frosty discipline. 

There is no disposition in Germany to deny any body 
the privilege of working in the garden who has the power. 
Just opposite my study-window in Bremen there were sev- 
eral lots which were owned by different persons, but were 
cultivated by women as well as men. Generally, the sexes 
work together; but so far as appearances go, the women 
know as well how to use the spade and hoe as the men. 
Indeed, there is no doubt that they are quicker in their 
movements, and really accomplish more in the field in a 
day. There is a general disposition on the part of the 
poor to have a piece of ground, no matter how small, how 
angular, or how poor it is. Depend upon it, it will soon 
be dug over, two spade-depths down ; it will be filled with 
fertilizers ; and its surface will be as smooth and clodless 
as if raked by the softest fairy hands that Hans Andersen 
has ever told us about. The gardens are planted with 
mathematical exactness. You may glance at the largest 
of them, but not a plant will be found out of place. The 
divisions between gardens under different proprietors are 
often only imaginary lines, there being two important 
objections to fences between them ; first, they cost too 
much ; and second, they occupy altogether too much valu- 
able ground. Where a fence would be, the real German 
gardener can raise a large quantity of vegetables. This 



LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

cconom. Slirprisi . ,nds in 

,trast with the wastefulni land ever, 

met with in Ameri 

The care best 
with even more skill and taste, in the cultival 
The Germans love flowers. According to th< 
phers, there never was a time when they did : Tl 

would submit to any ordinary deni r than be with- 

out them. 1 believe if Herri: tenrath Blumenliebc 

were required to pay a tax on every flower that hai. 

h fuchsia, or hyacinth, «.r n ilk that in the 

windows of his house, he would submit to the | 
demand without a murmur, sooner than a 1 the blifi 

ful ownership. Thi of flowi : 

l,, the ,, to the wealthy I The wealthy ha 

their conservatories, N ,n " 

1 complete without one. And itisnol 

tr, where nobody can see it, but 

at tl: fie of the the m 

would he lik ■ '-he flowers in ; 

beautiful, some of them in the 
thers having rich 
ornamented with beautiful ■ 

tly and beautiful 
: burnt h the 

lutiful v 
hum iuch flc 



THE GERMANS AND THEIR GARDENS. 69 

The family that is crowded into a single story of a small 
house is sure to have each window, however small, occu- 
pied by flowers. Then every little projection — a rebel- 
lious brick, or a dissatisfied piece of timber, or a shelf 
nailed to the original window-sill — is burdened with 
flowers. They are healthy plants, too, for they seem to be 
always in blossom, and the leaves are of the freshest ver- 
dure. I call to mind at this time the flowers in the win- 
dows of a dilapidated house near our Bremen cottage. 
This house was probably not less than a century and a half 
old, and was occupied by a very poor family. I never 
knew the children to be clean or neatly clad ; but the 
flowers that bloomed in luxuriant beauty in those old-fash- 
ioned windows were worthy of the best mansions on Fifth 
Avenue. Nor is this any exception. In the narrowest 
streets and obscurest lanes of the city, in town as well as 
in country, there is a love of flowers, and a skill in train- 
ing them into thrift and beauty, confined to no class or 
condition, and exhibited alike by small children and very 
aged persons. 

There is no time in the year when flowers are not sala- 
ble. The flower-stores are judiciously located on street- 
corners. But a flower-store in Germany is a very .differ- 
ent thing from those in John-street, or the flower-stalls in 
Washington Market. There is something else to be seen 
in them besides monotonous drawers, with labels, of all the 
plants in botany, or parcels of seeds, or clusters of dried 
bulbs, or packages of shrubs ready for planting. First of all, 
there are the living plants, arranged with exquisite taste on 
terraced stands at each of the large windows, and bloom- 



;o LIFE IX THE FATHERLANl 

ing in tropical splendor and beauty. These windows are 

mplete .study. Any body w!. 
and look at them by the hour; and he m. ire that 

when he returns a day or two later, while he will proh 
find some new plant added and some fading flower with- 
drawn, he will observe no diminution in the 

ene. Tin mere 

vernal institutions, but ar< rmanent as the bank 

the Rothschilds, titinuing from Januar 
again. Yet at the blishmc ^ihle 

varii lso be obtained. I 'her 

>r ornamenting a street wind. 

d, will be asked for in vain. 

But then tin other flower-stor in humbler 

kind. There are little I 
under the shadow of the <>1«1 cathedrals, and 
women. The lowly saleswomen ma and thi 

their little ket: J embers and 

during the very coldest weather of the winter. have 

ltii'ul bouquets of dried fl which I 

: fresh ones— thus h iking 

care of i! from i 'hey 

have fresh on. m. In cold \\ 

cr these cannot h . but it 

women for one, she will tak. 

mi. 

timeth 1 

without takin 

l 



THE GERMANS AND THEIR GARDENS. 71 

In addition to the private care and culture of flowers, 
the municipal authorities bestow all pains upon them in 
the public parks and gardens. This is not merely the 
case in one, but in all the German cities. The Wall in 
Bremen and the Anlage in Frankfort are parks, which ex- 
tend from one end of the city to the other. They are the 
peaceful and beautified remains of the old ramparts, and 
are now the great promenades of the inhabitants. The 
walks are well laid out, flowers and trees being distributed 
in such a way as to present a constant change of scene. 
Some of the flower-plots are very large, and are cultivated 
with the strictest care. On the Bremen Wall there were, 
even in spring, long and winding borders, and flower-beds 
of blooming hyacinths and crocuses, which reminded one 
rather of Italy than of the fifty-fourth degree of north lat- 
itude. Then the beds of roses and the endless variety of 
other flowers daily underwent the treatment of those pains- 
taking and matchless gardeners. And if they succeeded 
thus early in the season in bringing their horticultural 
charges to such a high state of beauty, what must have 
been their success in the later spring, and in all the sum- 
mer months ? 

On all festal occasions there is exhibited a fondness for 
floral adornments which is equaled nowhere else, with the 
single exception of Holland, the paradise of tulips, dah- 
lias, and other bulbs. But there is not the lavish expense 
in providing rare flowers that is now becoming common 
in this country. In Germany those used at festivities are 
such as the season produces, and are supplied at moderate 
cost' At funerals all friends and acquaintances bring 



LIFE IN THE FATHL 

rs in many . hile the pi the 

■ • 
■ 
taini the 

interment has taken \ I 
ever forgotl 
for, not only b) I the many 

to the cemetery, but by the family to whom it i 

terest Ofl 
itiful and t. A 

. il to the inclosurc, and i 
at frequent 
itefully 
flowers, which, when autumn 
their evergreen fir ubor-vii 

ar with tt i < 
That the 
influ 

in a ii. 

Idren 1 
<-f them ; I 
of their ] 
thai 
whil< 



II. 
SCHOOLS-GREAT AND SMALL. 



The t ti In « 

. .lli.l liupol 

ren higher by Uiolr means. 

Nil .:. 



LEGISLATION ON SCHOOLS— STATISTICS. 7$ 



CHAPTER I. 

LEGISLATION ON SCHOOLS. COMPARATIVE STATISTICS. 

r I ^HE increasing attention bestowed lately on the 
•*- schools by European legislators is a gratifying evi- 
dence of progress in meeting a great popular want. It 
was one of the very first questions to which the En- 
glish Parliament, on the accession of the Gladstone min- 
istry, addressed itself, and there are few Englishmen or 
Americans who read the reports of the long discussion in 
that body, and especially the elaborate speeches of Messrs. 
Melley and Goschen, who were not astonished at the sta- 
tistical revelations of popular ignorance in Great Britain. 
Mr. Bright, in his address at Birmingham, in 1869, after 
saying, with his usual candor, that the education of the 
masses is " infinitely below that of Prussia, and, I think, 
also of Switzerland, and infinitely below that of the cor- 
responding class — if there be a corresponding class — in 
the Northern States of the American Union," recalled 
the memorable words of his lamented friend, Cobden, 
that the Prussians "were the Yankees of Europe, and 
from their education would be the most powerful nation 
in Europe, because they had followed to a very large 
extent, although not exactly in the same way, the sys- 
tem of the United States, of endeavoring to give a sound 
education to their whole people." 

In no country has there been a greater increase of 
4* 



I.I 11. IN I. AND. 

lative zeal in the of public education than in 

I In th 

declared, at th of the Corps 1 tif, that, 

within nine months, thanks to the thir- 

teen thousand new coura I idy had been I for 

adults. A map, projected by M. Durny, re; ts all 

the Departments in light Or dark 
which the state of education may be determined. 
I irtments show a percent, 
without any education ; twelve. 

; and twenty-six, i The I 

trict is ne, and, indo 

In the Department of.Doules, public instruction 
general than anywhere else in the country. A 
been made to establish evening-scl 
thirty thousand teachers have already taken up th 
ure, and such schools have been established ill 

parishes. In the .' 

parish libraries b 1 established in many ilist: 

and of them embrace many thou 

The ig the 

impl) amazing, and ;!. 
him there which will the utt 

tional /e.il. In I: 
a ] ii of twcnl n mill: 

ul nor 
1— the 
llation of that date. In .t .\G 

■ 

wha while in I 



LEGISLATION ON SCHOOLS— STATISTICS. 77 

lation are without instruction. Only in a few districts — 
for example, in Turin — is there any special zeal for primary 
school education. In that city, the school-children con- 
stitute one eighth of the population. 
• In Spain, which has a population of seventeen millions, 
nearly twelve millions are unable either to read or write. 
A late official report says : " It is very easy to see how 
public education is conducted, when we are informed that, 
out of 72,157 municipal councilors, 12,479 can neither 
read nor write ; besides these, 422 burgomasters, 938 ad- 
juncts, and 11,119 nagadores of the municipalities, can 
neither read nor write." Popular education was one of 
the gravest, but one of the first, problems which the new 
Provisional Government, after the dethronement of Isa- 
bella, was called upon to solve. 

Portugal seems, however, in some respects, to be quite in 
advance of her Spanish neighbor. Elementary education 
is gratis and obligatory. Parents and guardians are re- 
quired to send their children to school, under a penalty of 
from fifty cents to one dollar. If children reach their 
eighteenth year without being able to read or write, their 
parents or guardians lose all political rights for the space 
of five years. Instruction is secular, the priests not being 
allowed to interfere with it in any way whatever. In 
every school, the exercises open every day with prayer 
from a prayer-book ; besides, every teacher must take his 
children every Sunday to' mass, and see that they are all 
provided with the Church prayer-books. He teaches 
them the fundamental articles of the Christian (Catholic) 
faith, and prepares them for their first communion. He 



LH E IN THE 1 Mil. 

with them, from an 

r the 

A\ the principal pa 

with 

1 ie provision made den ami N opula* 

instruction is highly credital eramej 

stantly devisinj 

: :t of the i 

den and N n that I 

in the 
ish thai 0.80 th ula " 

tion ; of which th 1 tne 

par: 1,717. The 

thai 
eminent e>timat< public 

instruction for 1 r the I •> >" 

I 
.vhi. h ■ ly like tin- I 

to I, .thaleis. ami I 

thalcrs. 1 

the education l to 

.1 thalei i. 1 hi 

■ 

■ 

thai 

1 • . 

1 ' : 



LEGISLA TION ON SCHOOLS— STA TISTICS. 79 

National Library, besides 55,000 thalers toward the foun- 
dation of a new edifice, whose completion is to cost 
480,238 thalers, the sum of 27,850 thalers ; for the two 
Universities, 466,551 thalers; the Government archives, 
20,040; the National Museum, 25,550; the Caroline 
Institute, 75,051. The academies receive as follows: 
Swedish, 12,000; Scientific, 14,710; the Fine Arts, His- 
tory, and Antiquities, 16,450; the Liberal Arts, 53,600; 
Music, 30,300 ; and the National History Museum, 43,950. 
It may be affirmed with safety that all the great move- 
ments toward popular instruction in these Continental 
countries have taken their rise from Germany. The geo- 
graphical position of the territory has been as important 
a factor in this respect as, in the sixteenth century, in the 
diffusion of Protestant sentiments. The German school 
is the growth of centuries of repeated experiment, patient 
labor, and careful observation. Pedagogy, long before 
Pestalozzi's day, was elevated to one of the most respect- 
able and elaborate sciences, and, as applied in Germany, is 
nearer perfection than anywhere else in the world. There, 
more than in any other country, fitness is the condition 
of the teacher's holding his place ; and in no other land is 
the relation between teacher and pupil so beautified and 
sweetened by such a large element of real sympathy and 
friendship. The teacher does not consider it beneath his 
dignity to place himself on a level with his scholar, to 
ascertain his tastes and cultivate them, to ferret out his 
plans and criticise them as a friend, and not to stand 
aloof from him in his sorrows. A boy or girl, therefore, 
placed in a German school of average respectability, is 



LIFE IN THE FA I'll. 

■ 
friends and I 

. 
tiality il 
Rut no 
fied with 1. 
the members «>l tl the 

Gen P rliament, arc continu 
In the 1 . ind in l 

a half | it of the children 

tton ; in the provii 

than this ; while in W 

In the i I 1 

sia, where the lanj difficult 

the | ea It 

hiltlren uiuihl 
:). 

Th 
■ ion. The General Convenl 
hundred of whom w 

I 



LEGISLA TION ON SCHOOLS— STA TISTICS. 8 1 

a discount. There is, likewise, an effort now making 
throughout Germany to contract the bounds of religious 
instruction as closely as possible. At present, only two 
or three hours are devoted weekly to the subject. The 
biblical history of the Old Testament is almost totally 
neglected. In the Kingdom of Saxony, a controversy has 
broken out on the use of the Bible in the public schools. 
A Chemnitz teacher, by the name of Stahlknecht, has 
asserted in a work that a selection from the Bible, a 
so-called " School Bible," is an unavoidable necessity for 
Christian training, as many objectionable passages in the 
Old Testament can only exert a corrupting influence on 
the children! In 1853 a number of clergymen and 
teachers, among whom was the highly respected Hauss- 
child, petitioned the Ministry for the introduction of a 
selection from the Bible ; and in 1862 the Legislative and 
State Council at Chemnitz declared for the same. The 
Pedagogical Union has approved of this petition, and 
a number of clergymen and teachers have been called 
into Council to discuss the question, whether one of the 
existing selections or a new one can be best employed. 
Whatever these agree upon will be introduced into all the 
schools. In several of the German countries this question 
has elicited considerable discussion, and a number of 
selections of biblical history have been employed, the 
most of them having the old rationalistic sense. 



LIFE IN i ATHERLAND. 



I 



(II. Ml ER II 

l 11 I KIND] 

'III-; Kindei gartei . an institution I a 

necessity by th< i 
mentary and the youn 
The firsl 
than forty ) 
sprung up in •. 
now Kii - in all the 

in Gi t Brit and tin- I 

■ 
the sul 

■ 

hers ti. the medium - 

som 

the 

I that ti 

nan. 
in tl 

and in*: 

I i. 



THE KINDERGARTEN. $$ 

revolution in Germany and Switzerland effected by Campe, 
Pestalozzi, Salzmann, and Rousseau. The founder — Fred- 
eric Froebel — took Pestalozzi as his model, and was even 
a teacher in Pestalozzi's institution at Yverdun, from 1808 
to 1810. He was born on April 21, 1782. In 1799 he 
went to Jena University as a student, but, after a short 
experience in study and nine weeks in prison, he became 
a farmer. His father died in 1802, when the son became 
a forest-keeper in the neighborhood of Bamberg. In 1805 
he went to Frankfort, in hope of becoming an architect, 
but neither this nor any other occupation seemed to suit 
him. He studied in Gottingen in 181 1, and in 1812 went 
to Berlin University. He then directed his attention to 
education, and particularly to the education of young chil- 
dren, and issued publications at frequent intervals in favor 
of his new views. He commenced his Universal German 
Educational Institute in Griesheim, which he followed by 
others in various places. His principle or formula of edu- 
cation was this : " Do this, and see what results, in this 
particular respect, from your action, and to what knowl- 
edge it will lead you." He would unite thinking and 
doing, perceiving and acting, knowledge and ability, in the 
most intimate relations. His great themes of instruction 
were, religion, physical exercise, contemplation and com- 
prehension of the outward world, and language. Religion 
— the Christian religion — is the foundation of all knowl- 
edge, as well as of all the relations from which all our 
knowledge receives its life and importance, and to which 
all our knowledge and capacity, and their fruits, return. 
We find, however, not only the principles of our Christian 



84 LIFE IN THE FATHl ': 

ealed in tl in the 

individual man, in thai inkind 

and in the whole sphere of nature. li 
founded his religious instruction, formally, on the tl. 

revelation , in and by the II the 

life of individual man, and the whole 

Langu unting, drawing, and singing w< jht 

by him in a peculiar way, so t 

imparted without the pupil feeling the burden of it. He 
• ■ ich his pupils piano-musi them 

exercise on some other object, and, after the I 

ime skillful, he took them to tl. 
pupils begin Latin by readii 
and commenced his instruction in 
matical rules, hut by making the k the 

at the very out I llected 

published in three volumes, in Berlin, in 
t popular work, and the one which 
influence in propagating his sentiuu 
Kii: i many, i 

Children"— A! 
Blankenburj 

mnot be pi 

,.! a Km.: A than liptioi. 

which the principal one in Bremen is • 

whii h I \nd in . 

Many of the i bildren ■■ mall that 

■ ■ 

I little | 

■ m ol 



THE KIND ERG A R TEN. 8 5 

taken, however, that each child aid in adjusting his own 
things, and having a fixed place for all. The proprietress 
— Miss Grabau — was assisted by two other ladies. The 
school was divided into two classes, either one or the other 
of which was nearly always in the large hall for exercise, or 
working in the little gardens out of doors. In the school- 
room, each scholar was provided with a very neat and 
comfortable desk and chair, and was taught to regard 
them as his own property. The employments were 
worsted-work, knitting, elementary drawing, and every 
other imaginable thing which is supposed to furnish such 
young fingers and minds with combined skill and amuse- 
ment. The children had patterns before them for every 
thing they were to do, and the teacher personally super- 
intended them in each little labor, when every pains was 
taken to impart as much elementary instruction as possi- 
ble. For example, if a little girl was at work on a book- 
mark or a lamp-mat, she was taught imitation, combina- 
tion, perspective, counting, and the alphabet. As soon as 
a child was tired of one employment, the mind was imme- 
diately diverted by the teacher to another, to prevent 
weariness. 

The room for exercise was very large, and, like the 
school-room, neatly ornamented with pictures ; and when 
the children were in it they were under the care of a 
teacher, who had them go through many gymnastic exer- 
cises. This was the most interesting feature of the Kin- 
dergarten. The children, boys and girls promiscuously, 
were directed to assume a certain position. It might be 
that of a regiment drawn up in a line of battle. The 



86 1.1 IE IX THE FATHERLANl 

teacher then commem ed ;i 

then gj, when all 

after which the battle commenced in right 
After th won, tl her nai 

• »ry in verse, which the children had 1>- 

iously taught, and which they repeated with hei 
through with all the gymri I by the 

For instan< e, she told of a urea- 
out of which the pigeons came, one by 5 me flew 

slowly, and some more rapidly : others went off and ho] 
around <>n the ground, while others lighted on the 
some got tired, and others fell down ; and thi 

1 movemei i whole 

Sented l>v the children. ..ml. the teach- n to 

tell in prose about an old blacksmith, and by and b) 

bed the verses descriptivi anvil.! 

iron, and great hammer, when the children 
and the wh..K- room wa^ transformed, for a time, iii 
-nit smithy, and all the little industrious 

hingly playing blacksmith. Anothi 
a walk over a heath, wh 

I heard I 

into the pond. During this time the enti: 

a i similar croakei 

A ins thus, during tl which the chil- 

dren go thi 11 the i mmon I 



THE KINDERGARTEN. 87 

In all these iraitatory exercises the children preserved 
strict order, but their risible propensities were not at all 
restrained. Just as soon as the slightest fatigue or de- 
crease in interest was observed the exercises were changed, 
when the class was immediately taken into another room, 
or else into the garden. About one half the time seemed 
to be devoted to the gymnastic and horticultural employ- 
ments, and the other half to the light manual labor at the 
desks in the school-room proper. 

There are a great many of these half-poetical and half- 
prose stories, having somewhat of a theatrical character, 
taught and performed in the Kindergarten. I have at 
hand a volume which contains fifty in all, profusely illus- 
trated. Some of the titles are : " The Mouse and the 
Cat," "The Ants," "The Stork and the Frog," "The 
Butterfly," "The Grasshopper and the Worm," and 
" The Horse-chestnut Tree." Each of these stories 
requires, perhaps, from ten to fifteen minutes to repeat 
and perform. 

The exercises and employments at the Kindergarten 
are sure to be brought away by the children, and enter 
largely into their home-life. The two little folks that 
went out of our doorway every morning to Miss Grabau's 
school, had not been in attendance more than a few weeks 
before they were hopping about the premises like frogs, 
leaping like deer, springing like cats, and, as nearly as 
they could, flying like swallows, barking like dogs, swim- 
ming like fish, swinging like tree-tops, sailing like boats, 
and chattering like magpies. 

It is difficult to decide whether the Kindergarten is very 



LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND, 

superior to the usu hildren. It 

likely that it is all that . m admii 

imagine it I ind it is equally : that man] 

the principles which arc applied in it, with 
and only by illustration, might be em] advan- 

ly in connection with attractive and appropi 
books. A < ertain amount of the Kindergarten inti 
into our ordinary elementary school would certain! 
improvement. Too much cannot be said for the | 
influence of the gymnastic < which, indeed, con- 

stitute the most beneficial feature of the institution. It 
is to be tted that, despite i 

on religion, there is but little <. inity 

taken in the purely German Kindergarten — tl 
its 1. aiicn Pestalozzian origin, and I 
ciation of it to a level with outward nature, and t: 
lation natural to the human mind. ill the 

ht the children, there that n. 

en taught them, so fa: 

>n< erned, in the palm) 

in the time of the which Schille: 

to have ba< k again to the world. 



THE FRANKFORT SCHOOLS. 89 



CHAPTER III. 

THE FRANKFORT SCHOOLS. 

'"l^HE schools in Germany, to which any foreign pupil 
■*- has access, are very varied in scope and facilities. 
Those of Frankfort have the name of being the best in 
the country ; but it is not likely that there is any further 
foundation for the celebrity than their being simply so 
frequented by English and Americans as to have become 
specially adapted to the practical Anglo-Saxon tastes, and 
more widely known across the Channel and the Atlantic 
than are the other schools. In Frankfort the two classes 
of male schools to choose between are, the public schools, 
supported by the State, and the private or select schools. 
In the former the teachers are just as competent as in the 
latter, and the annual tuition is not over seventy gulden, 
or thereabout. The buildings are commodious, but gen- 
erally of very defective ventilation, and have a gymnasium 
and play-ground. Here, too, the American boy has the 
best opportunity to learn German ; for nearly all his asso- 
ciates are Germans. But, then, he cannot receive as much 
attention from his instructors as he would like, and must 
frequently employ private aid, because in most of these 
schools there are too many students for the number of teach- 
ers. Care should be taken, in placing young Americans in 
German schools, to avoid those where other Americans or 
English are studying. Neither German nor French can 



cjo I.I 111 IX THE FATHERLAND. 

learned to . 

is the plan of studies in one of the i 
Frankfort-on-the-Main : — 

^1 l Ml S AM> HOI ["HE Ml I'll \| t I 1 1/, 

.\ It 

VII. VI. V. IV. III. II. I. 

Rcli ■ . 3 3 3 - - 

uction by Intuition \ 

ii 

..m 4 4 4 4 

1 I . . 4 4 

. 3 

1 . -' 2 

tl H isloij . j 

3 
hmetic and 4 4 4 



Penmanship 4 4 

• ing -• 

- - 1 1 

ing - 1 

I ! :■■ 

In this elementary sch<>.-l tl the 

number of scholars is three hundred ami t> ine, 

ami the pupils range from eight l 

America i-^ certainly not the only land, it 
where tin- teacher is overworked 
All tl. '1. the 1" 

American who simpl) 

and tin- ordinary ! 

lucation at hoi 
the 

m American college, he si 
lition I 



THE FRANKFORT SCHOOLS 91 

private instruction on any subject that he may wish. The 
select, or boarding, schools have every facility for real 
progress and success — able teachers and plenty of them, 
chemical apparatus, charts, and what not. The student 
can board in the institution, or, if he prefer, elsewhere, 
and attend as a day scholar. The price of board and tui- 
tion in one such school, near Hanover, whose catalogue I 
have before me, is, for boys of eight to twelve years, $250 
(gold) ; of twelve to fifteen, $300 ; of fifteen to eighteen, 
$450. There is a reduction of these prices where broth- 
ers enter together ; but these terms are rather above than 
below the average. Here the scholars are trained with a 
view to their proposed vocation, without undergoing what 
might be called waste studies. 

In Frankfort there are about ten schools for boys and 
twenty for girls. In Heidelberg, Stuttgart, Brunswick, 
and all of the more western German towns and cities, 
there are excellent schools, I do not mention the names 
of any of them, for it would be doing injustice to many, 
equally good, that would be omitted. The schools which 
advertise the most in England and America do not enjoy 
the best reputation at home. The finest schools, as a 
rule, have as many pupils as are desired, without adver- 
tising. The number of students in a German select 
school averages, .say, about forty. 

Some Americans and English, to secure religious over- 
sight for their children, place them under the care of 
pastors, in whose families they live, and by whom they 
are instructed. In some respects this is a good plan, but 
it has the disadvantages resulting from being educated in 



UFE IN Th IX IK 

a very nam 1!(,t 

always whal body would call iritual 

A young American, who idying in Frankfort, told 

me one day that a pastor of his had lately 

requested him to take the twelve o'clock Sunday ti 
in order to attend the theater that afternoon in Darm- 
stadt, where a piece of unusual 
performed. 

"But yon preach at eleven o'clock, and you 
catch the train ?" was the answer. 

"O! that don't make any diff< I «P 

my closing prayer, throw off mj in the 

go directly from church to the d rid thus 

timi • tch the train !" 

The American, who, by the way, had had faithful p 
I Sundi ' borne, in 

declined the invitation, the importunities of t! 
loving pastor t«» the contrary notwithstandii 

| | mans do not like male and female S 

ether. They pro-, ellent i 

opposing them, and you seldom hear of 01 I 

There are. nevertheh- I BCmil 

where religious instruction is not 

ntion is paid I 
■' • 
the countrii • ,,um N 

the usual opposition of the I 

then 

whi 

with th ment 



THE FRANKFORT SCHOOLS. 93 

terms in this institution are, in round figures, $200 (gold), 
for board and tuition. 

If parents do not wish their children to pay special 
attention to the modern languages, they will do as well 
to keep them in schools at home, where instruction in 
practical branches and in the elements of the classics is 
unsurpassed. If they wish their children to go abroad for 
a length of time — and less than a couple of years is not 
advisable — they should take special pains to see that they 
are placed in a boarding school where the proprietor and 
instructors are of evangelical sentiments, and have at least 
some respect for the American Sunday, and, the children 
being placed under them, that their time be occupied in 
such studies as will be of the most use to them on their 
return to America. As a rule, education abroad should 
be deferred until a broad foundation is laid at home. 

The cases are rare where young ladies should be sent 
abroad for instruction. Where parents have sons and 
daughters whom they desire to be educated in Germany 
or France, their best course is to go abroad themselves, 
and take their children with them. In Dresden, Berlin, 
Hanover, Frankfort, and other cities, there are many 
American families living, the direct object of whose go- 
ing abroad was that the children might attend German 
schools. The more one thinks of this plan, the more 
reason he will find to admire it. Living is as cheap there 
as in America, but not much cheaper. However, to a 
wise parent an undivided family circle abroad is much 
more desirable than unintermitted business enterprises 
at home. 



UFE IN THE FATHEl 



CHAF1 ER IV. 

ONE of the most important quesl d with 

the wh<»lc recent reformatory movement in Austi 
going ■ lily onward c-vcr sir, is that of the 

sc ho 1 the abrogation of the rdat has 

the mean- of restoring to the I 

instruction not enjoyed by them s the 

There was a time in Austria when 
in a very flourishing state. As soon as the R< 
mation broke into the Catholic darkness and p the 

country, the Bible immediat< pular b 

and s at once improved in the cities and vill 

wherever the Reformation had the slightest influenc 
nobility, who were at firs! i ible to th< which 

mmenced by Huss and continued by Lutl 
t0 Germany, and especiall) to Wittenl 
and the more strength the Rel .rmation gained in 

them..' th ° 

a where the people showed a 
lanism, the schools either went 

rominent i im ' 

rrainate, tl 

and • 

i 



PRO TEST ANT SCHOOLS IN A U STRIA. 95 

pressed more and more, and those who refused to renounce 
their faith were required by cruel religious edicts to leave 
the country, as in the case of the Evangelical Salzburgers. 
The political history of Austria during the seventeenth 
and eighteenth centuries reflects very clearly the history 
of the schools. Austria was a thoroughly Catholic em- 
pire, and the last vestige of Protestant liberty therein was 
destroyed in 1629, under the government of Ferdinand 
II. ; and though a little leniency was shown under his 
successor, no openly professing Protestants were to be 
found any longer in Austria, and those who were Prot- 
estants at heart instructed their children privately in the 
Bible, and in the old devotional books and sermons left 
them by their forefathers. In order to prevent the people 
from ever yielding to Protestant heresy again, the instruc- 
tion of all the children in the land was placed in the hands 
of the Catholic clergy ; Catholic priests were placed over 
small circles or districts, and had charge over all the books, 
and oversight over all the teachers. The Emperor Joseph 
II. designed to pursue a better course, but his failure was 
partly owing to his being in advance of the public senti- 
ment of his country, and in part to the shortness of his 
reign. However, the first important step within the' cen- 
tury was taken by this ruler, who issued the Patent of 
Toleration, on the 13 th of October, 1781. This served 
as the official invitation to the Protestants to show their 
colors. They immediately began to form congregations, 
called their pastors in part from Hungary and in part 
from Germany, and immediately established schools on 
a good foundation. Of course, they were compelled 



96 LIFE FN THE FATHERLAND. 

their - 
in e> e naturally very much i 

them. In a short time the 

very flourishing, and had the name of being the best in 
the empire. They were distinguished not so much : 

ition, for tl matter 

the greater skill in teaching, the fre< the minds 

of the children, and, above all, for t: tural t: 

nt' the instruction. Hut after this time new shack! 
in the Austrian 1': ind it 1: 

the recent reform comment 
humiliation in the wa: hat the 1' 

assured a freedom of instruction which had 
en so fully enjoyed since the days of tl, 
A Prol stan! normal school | i in 

Biel and if we may I • un- 

der oppi • .i mark for the i\\\ 

will he very rapid, and its influence will be felt in 
trian Protestantism Th 
and plan 
I ' . ' 

that the seventeen hundred florins still unj 
Should he paid out of the • the 

Opening of the seminary might I 

with a dil 
the l Vdolphus Unioi 

I 
be men! 
1 

: 



PRO PES P. I N T SCHOOL S IN A US PR I A . 97 

their future operations. The former school-building is an 
ornament to the new part of the city of Vienna, and its 
arrangements for instruction are hardly surpassed in Ger- 
many. The board of managers consists of four Lutheran 
and two Reformed persons, and, besides the director and 
three catechists, there are twenty-two male and female 
teachers. The present director is Dr. R. A. Jacobi. 
There are over one thousand scholars in attendance. The 
charges for attendance are very moderate ; a scholar pay- 
ing, on entering the primary department, five florins ; 
(the Austrian florin is equal to about fifty cents in gold) ; 
on entering any further class, two florins ; and the sub- 
sequent yearly payment ranging from seven to fifteen 
florins. The school at Gratz consists of four classes, 
which are taught by a director and three teachers. 

The first general session of the Austrian Teachers' 
Association took place in Vienna, on the 5th of Septem- 
ber, 1867, and lasted two days. There were in attendance 
one thousand six hundred and twenty-seven teachers, and 
the prevailing spirit of the meeting was, that perfect relig- 
ious liberty is a necessity for the proper instruction of 
children. As a matter of course, the greater portion of 
the teachers were Catholics ; but there was no disposition 
to abridge the liberty of speech of their Protestant asso- 
ciates, and Catholics as well as Protestants united in claim- 
ing the absolute separation of the clergy from all interfer- 
ence with the instruction imparted in the Austrian schools. 
This teachers' meeting, the first of the kind in Austria, 
and attended by so great a number of members, had an 
influence in moving the Government and the Emperor 



LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

to adopt the reformatory measures which i. 

ulminal The ultra . the 

luncil, in adopting th< 
fallibility, has alienated all the libel itiment 

from the Church party, and it affilial lially with 

he Proti ts in fin I e mea be- 

half ot perfect confessional ami educational lil 
American Consul in Vienna told me that Austria was the 

• t country in Europe; and, ..I neither 

nor heard any thing in conflict with his opinion. 
The General German l \ :i held 

;..n in [870, in Vienna, where the 
course was taken for completely break the 

tratlition.il conservatism of Austrian education, and ; 
■ ion of educational facilitii 5. 1 he 
of such a character ittract the attentio 

Europe, I . that the 

inst the Ion- bondage wen I vident in a 

to (ist ,,11 all authority, the Bible : d. 

The tendency in Austria now ■ pu- 

lucation throughout the emj . in the 

direction of the study of natural i 

held a long sway, but on 

nature a prcdomina 
the An 

the disti 
•i-n hoi 
ind ph) 

om the former Tl 
M. \\ 



PRO TESTANT SCHOOLS IN A U STRIA. 99 

written a little work in defense of the proposed reform, 
and states his case very pointedly. He claims, that ac- 
cording to the present arrangement for natural science, 
only doctors and apothecaries seem to be kept in sight, 
and that the great mass of students are constantly drilled 
in the languages, to the utter neglect of physical studies. 
He urges, as a principal relief from the evil, that the 
number of professorships in the various gymnasia be so 
increased as to throw the whole field of nature open to 
every student ; and, further, that there should be more uni- 
versities. His second position, however, is by no means 
defensible ; for, if the history of the German universities 
proves any thing, it proves this : that it is not the great 
number of universities, but the magnitude of the facilities 
of the few, that develops both teacher and student, and 
elevates popular instruction. What a different aspect 
would be presented in Germany to-day, if the wealth and 
intellect concentrated in the Berlin University were scat- 
tered into half a dozen puny ones in different parts of the 
country ! 

Dr. Fischhof, in his " Oesterreich und die Biirgschaften 
ihres Bestandes," throws a stronger light on the present 
state of education in Austria than any other writer with 
whom I have met. His attempt, throughout his excellent 
work, is to compare his country, Austria, with other lead- 
ing nations, and to show wherein she stands in need of im- 
provement. The low stage of education seems to be the 
subject which he has made a special study. In Switzer- 
land, he says, the fifth part of all the government expend- 
iture is appropriated to education and worship ; twenty 
5* 



ioo LIFE IN THE FATHl 

L of th< 
applied to improving the edu 

sentime pulatioa In a the i 

trary, only ■ I a quarter meat 

mditure is appropriated to tion. 

Still, it must be that all t 

Europe stand, in thi 
France applies only four and a hal 
instruction, while Switzerlan in the 

youth 11. It 

tria should make, pi 

Switzerland 
■ H "00,000 gulden, while sh( ;0O,O0O. 

Swil :, which has a populati ,000, has 7.OOO 

1 
g) mi diversities in tl 

the 
I 

with hi \ inhal l 

aid. sh< 

d indu 
id 1.} ; 

1 

uni. 

I 1 ! 

I 

I I 



PRO TEST ANT SCHOOLS IN A U STRIA. I O I 

I Agricultural Academy, 82 Theological Schools, 16 Ob- 
stetrical Schools, 28 Agricultural Schools, 7 Nautical 
Schools, 5 Mining Schools, 3 Military Academies, 8 Spe- 
cial Military Schools, 8 School Companies, 9 Military 
Training Schools, and 4 Cadet Institutes. 

This author proceeds to show that it is not a mere acci- 
dent that Switzerland pays the great attention that she 
does to the subject of education. The main root of the 
matter is the free spirit of the people. He then attempts 
to prove this further by the state of education in the Unit- 
ed States of America, and pays a very high compliment 
to our system of popular instruction. He gives the most 
elaborate and reliable statistics of education in our coun- 
try, and shows by these that education in America is far 
in- advance of that in any other country in the world. He 
calls attention to the fact, too, that not only do the chil- 
dren in the common schools receive their education free, 
but that even their text-books and writing materials are 
supplied gratuitously. 

In reference to schools of a higher grade, and the Uni- 
versities, Dr. Fischhof claims that Austria remains far in 
the background, and must make immediate and rapid ad- 
vances if she would stand on a respectable footing with 
other important nations. He says, that while the Govern- 
ment should give all the aid it can to those higher institu- 
tions of learning, the people should take the matter in 
hand themselves, and show that they can go along inde- 
pendently of the Government. He again adduces the 
United States in support of his position, and defends the 
voluntary promotion of education by the people in a way 



102 LIFE IN THE FATHERLA 

ily gratifying and complimentary. I le 
the tin; int when Aim the 

lead of the European nations in the splendor of her edu- 
cational achievements. In order that Austria pron 
the cause of university education, the power of tl 
ernment over the universities must he diminished, and 
civ to the man i the universiti 

1 mony of history, the growth of the 

Italian universities, centuries ago, : ttrihutahle 

to this cause ; and the achievements of the Unix 

trecht and Leyden, in I lolland, were the dil 
of the free footing which the} id And the tu 

Universities irmany prove beyond a doubt that their 

perity and constant success have been the direct out- 
growth of tl terorless independence which th 
enjoyed In Gfeat Britain, rich ami lil the 
two I ities, l '\: rd ai I I laml i still 
measurably beneath the yoke of tin- I stal lished l i. 
I : only university in Engl Uld abreast of the - the 
times is the London University, which was founded in 
1828 b) impany. Our author here falls int 

r, in omitting just as important ;i one, the M 
tei 1 ersity, newly end ind now clothed with 

university functions. 

Dr. Fischhof, in continuing his comp 

I that I nteen 

hut one un tmely, I Tl - ii stitu- 

don has all the com].' m uni\ 

I l.in institutioi 

ftf most th: 1 ind has 



PROTESTANT SCHOOLS IN AUSTRIA. 103 

one university for every 400,000 inhabitants, while in 
Germany there is one for every 2,000,000, and in Austria 
only one for every 5,000,000. Dr. Fischhof attributes a 
large measure of the great achievements and prosperity 
of higher education in the United States to the fact that 
instruction is not a subject of legislation by the General 
Government at all, but that it is left to the individual 
States ; and he does not pass over Washington's earnest 
wish that there might be one model university. 



LIFE IN TH1 



< HAPTER V. 

I HE M M li 

T J* \ i . l\ \ man 

A ** i :. /hole 

tinent. Madai 
new, even in her 
litei i many i 

■ 
a this well worth) : — 

•■ I. 

■ 
1 
and 

■ 
1 



GERMAN UNIVERSITIES. 105 

several universities, the improvement of one of these schools neces- 
sarily occasioned the improvement of the others. No sooner, there- 
fore, had Gottingen risen to a decided superiority through her system 
of curatorial patronage, and other subordinate improvements, than 
the different governments found it necessary to place their seminaries, 
as far as possible, on an equal footing. The nuisance of professional 
recommendation, under which the universities had so long pined, 
was generally abated ; and the few schools in which it has been tol- 
erated subsist only through their endowments, and stand as warning 
monuments of its effect. Compare wealthy Greifswalde with poor 
Halle. The virtual patronage was, in general, found best confided to 
a small body of curators ; though the peculiar circumstances of the 
country, and the peculiar organization of its machinery of govern- 
ment, have recently enabled at least one of the German States to 
concentrate, without a violation of our principles, its academical pat- 
ronage in a ministry of public instruction. This, however, we can- 
not now explain. It is universally admitted, that since their rise 
through the new system of patronage, the universities of Germany 
have drawn into their sphere the highest talent of the nation ; that 
the new era in its intellectual life has been wholly determined by 
them ; as from them have emanated almost all the most remarkable 
products of German genius in literature, erudition, philosophy, and 



science. 



" * 



In former times the universities — Leipzig for example — 
were largely sustained by extensive landed estates. But 
these, from various causes, have passed out of their pos- 
session, and the support of the universities now devolves 
upon the appropriations of the State and the fees of 
students. 

The following account of the expenditures and income 
of the nine universities of Prussia, and of the Academy 

* " Discussions on Philosophy and Literature.'' Second London edition, 
p. 33i. 



LIFE IN THE FATHER* 

of M iistcr, has the G 

and may their — 

1 . for th< 

amounts to 1,492,21 1 thai 
derived from State fun I the remaining 

the investments of the several institutio 

is entire sum . ! iha- 

for institute^, museum univei >ij>; 

184,052 thalers 

. u thalers foi . univ< 

administration ; 

47,534 thalers for incidentals and 
( n the- various institutes connected with tl. rent 

departments of the univi in and ( 

tingen 1 im ; th< 

id the latter, 1 

Jl in the follou Bonn, 1 - 

. 1 [alle, 1 27, ;\; thalei 
1 lau, 11 ji thai* 

nly uni which 

the State, hut mis' . the ineoine fi 

wn propcrl ,.}.ko • 

and. tin. ills, the \\ M instt 

II 

• 
■ 

in thl 

. in the law 



GERMAN UNIVERSITIES. 107 

professors in ordinary, and forty-three extraordinary in 
the medical faculties, 108,192 thalers ; two hundred and 
nine professors in ordinary, and eighty-six extraordinary 
in the philosophical faculties, 302,042 thalers. 

The remainder of the whole sum is applied to lectures, 
teachers of languages, and instructors in fencing, music, 
riding, and dancing. The average support of a regular pro- 
fessor is 1,246! thalers ; the theological professor receiving 
a little more than any of the rest. The average in all the 
faculties is as follows : A professor in ordinary in the 
theological faculty receives 1,262' thalers ; one in the law 
faculty, 1,258! thalers ; one in the medical faculty, 1,223 J 
thalers ; one in the philosophical faculty, 1,257! thalers. 

The highest average salary in any one university is 
received by a regular professor in Berlin, who gets 1,568 
thalers. Then follow Kiel, with an average salary of 1,446 
thalers ; Gottingen, 1,445 thalers ; Bonn, 1,349 thalers ; 
Halle, 1,259 thalers ; Griefswald, 1,252 thalers ; Breslau, 
1,134 thalers; Konigsberg, 1,097; Marburg, 1,069 tna_ 
lers ; and at the Academy of Monster the average salary 
is only 842 thalers. The salaries of professors extraor- 
dinary are so varied that an average cannot be arrived at. 
They range from 200 to 1,200 thalers. Of instructors in 
the universities who receive no salary whatever, there are 
five professors in ordinary, (two at Gottingen, two at 
Breslau, and one at Bonn,) and forty professors extraor- 
dinary. Of the latter, there are five theologians, four 
priests, eighteen in the medical faculties, and thirteen 
in the philosophical faculties. 

Of the sum applied to institutes and museums, the 



1 08 L IFE IN THE 1 '. 1 THERL . I ND. 

rtion is drawn by the m< 
departmenl 
aria alone require almost tion 

dl the libraries of all the univ< 
\\ thalers ; the latter. rheGott 

library receives yearl) 15 \2 ; tl the! »nn libs 

\ thalers ; the K< the 

I slau library, thalers; the Halle librar) 

thalers ; the Marburg librai 1 thalers ; the 

wald library, 4,335 thalers : the Kiel library. 4,306 thai 
I university library at Berlin re ■ s— 

a wry small sum. But it must be remembered thai 
great royal library of Berlin is open for all univei 
purposes, and is very richly endowed 1 

The division of labor practiced in the German univ< 
sities is « arried to a marvc I tenl I 

are allowed much liberty in the choice of them 
courses of lectun iken th 

importance be n< Unquestionabl <-i the 

t causes of the prosperity of the unh the 

litei tivity of the instruct I the 1 

to labor which the student 
them, lies in tl that men are im 

:011s with careful regard to the 
depart n A studs in which they hai 

and -\' ! ' 

I the man to hi- I If I 

\\ to th 

in I ' lhc 

. the 



GERMAN UNIVERSITIES. 109 

German university would soon lose its traditional influ- 
ence. In this respect, as in others, it is essentially a re- 
public, and has been for many generations, whatever the 
character of the government holding jurisdiction over it. 

In order to show how far this division of labor is car- 
ried, and how much is conceded to the individual taste of 
teacher and student, as well as to give some notion of the 
wonderful intellectual machinery in constant operation in 
the German universities, I present an abstract from the 
prospectus of five representative theological departments. 
There are four faculties in all the universities, with but 
an exception or two : theology, law, medicine, philosophy. 
Political science, philology, history, and, in fact, all sub- 
jects not embraced under theology, law, or medicine, are 
grouped under the last head. From the number of lect- 
ures, and the specialty of the themes in the theological 
department, those of the three remaining faculties may 
be pretty well imagined. 

BERLIN. — Dorner : Theological Encyclopaedia and Methodology ; 
Special Christian Doctrine ; Exercises in Systematic Theology. Rodi- 
ger : Genesis ; Chaldaic Language f and the Book of Daniel ; Intro- 
duction to Old Testament. Senary: I.Samuel; Psalms; Hebrew 
Language and other Semitic Dialects. Kleinert : Isaiah; Biblical 
Theology of the Old Testament ; Significance of the Old Testament 
for the Church of the Present Time ; Theological Disputation. Die- 
terici : Minor Prophets. Vatke : Introduction to Old Testament ; 
Doctrines. Strauss : History of the Old Testament, including Bibli- 
cal Archaeology ; Catechetics ; Homiletics, and Homiletical Exercises. 
Messner : Introduction to New Testament ; Christology of New Tes- 
tament. Bruckner : John's Gospel ; Homiletical Exercises. Twes- 
ten : Epistle to Hebrews ; Moral Science ; Symbolical Basis of the 



1 1 I /.// 

.- 
: 
■ 

Hisi 

: 

I 

I : 

■ 
i 

■ 

H A U.K. — A'd 



GERMAN UNIVERSITIES. Ill 

TJioluck: Synoptic Gospels; Sermon on the Mount; Exercises in 
New Testament Exegesis. Beyschlag : Exegesis of Christ's Para- 
bles ; Epistles to the Romans ; Life of Christ ; Exercises in Homi- 
letics and Catechetics. Dahne : II. Corinthians; Epistle of James. 
Guericke : Epistle to the Philippians ; Church History (first period.) 
Wuttke : History of Deism and Rationalism ; Ethics ; Exercises in 
Dogmatics and Ethics. Julius Mailer : Introduction to Dogmat- 
ics ; Dogmatic Theology ; Practical Theology. Kramer : History 
of Later Pedagogics. 

Leipzig. — Kahnis: History of Doctrines; Theological Encyclo- 
paedia; History of the Church in the Middle Ages. Luthardt : Dog- 
matic Theology ; Epistle to the Hebrews ; Characteristics of New 
Testament Scriptures ; Doctrinal Exercises. Lechler: History of 
Christian Missions. Delitzsch : Genesis ; Song of Solomon ; Mat- 
thew's Gospel. Fricke : Epistle to the Galatians ; Life of Christ ; 
Christian Ethics ; History of the Bible. Tischendorf : Introduction 
to the New Testament ; Palestine. Hblemann : Epistles to the 
Thessalonians ; Scriptural Idea of God. Hoffmann : Symbolics ; 
Practical Theology ; Catechetical Exercises. Schmidt : Epistles to 
the Corinthians; Christian Apologetics. Brockhaus : Church His- 
tory (first period). Mahlau: Book of Job; Hebrew Syntax ; Epistle 
to the Colossians ; Exegetical History of Old Testament. Kauisch : 
Isaiah ; History of Israel in Time of the Kings. Schurer : Introduc- 
tion to New Testament ; Exegetical History of New Testament. 

Basle (Switzerland). — Hagenbach : Later Church History (from 
1555 to the Present Time) ; Theological Encyclopaedia and Method- 
ology ; Elucidation of the Reformed Confessions ; Exercises in 
Church History and Homiletics. Stahelin : Introduction to the Pro- 
phetical and Poetical Books of the Old Testament ; History of the 
Jews ; Dialectical Exercises. Midler : New Testament Introduction ; 
Historical Basis for Higher Criticism ; Commentary on Epistles of 
John, James, Jude ; Elucidation of Works of Philo. Riggenbach : 
Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels down to the Passion ; Cate- 
chetics ; Theological Society. Schultz : System of Doctrine ; Proph- 
ecy of Isaiah ; Exegetical Society. Von der Goltz : Epistle to the 



i i - 1 /.//■/•: TN THE fa ////:/ 

mar ; 1 

»ides the theological faculties in these five unU 
there are six Tl in the 

sity of Berne, land ; fifl 

and Roman Catholic faculti \ in I i in 

Erlangen ; eight in Freibui .. i 

>en ; thirteen in G n : four i nine 

in Heidelb n in 

; seven in K 
Munich I Roman Catholi Jit in Mfmsl 

Catholic) ; eight in Prague 

tock : fourteen in Ti bii Protestant 

holic fa< ulties) : ten in Vienn 
nine in Wiirtzbui 
Zurich (nearly all Ratio: 

Tl. I in Universit) 

and the administration of then. 
cut i the Stal I l ident i 

nc country, while the man from whom 1 

i bclonj it' th< 

■ ison, tl ment is pi 

and tin 

the • 

students 1 

lV. 1: 

the unix I : 



GERMAN UNIVERSITIES. I 1 3 

laws have not kept pace with those of the State, and he 
demands that his whole guild shall be placed on exactly 
the same footing with other citizens. He hopes in this 
way to acquire liberty, I imagine, of fighting duels to his 
heart's content. Heidelberg University has already ab- 
rogated its court. It is difficult to imagine how any one 
can have greater freedom than the German student. He 
can do what he pleases within the bounds of morality, 
and sometimes outside of them. The professors, as such, 
have nothing whatever to do with discipline, and their rela- 
tion is purely that of teachers to pupils. The students may 
absent themselves from lectures as much as they choose, 
and if they are disorderly, and wish to play a prank by 
locking the lecture-room door — though just such soph- 
omOrical nonsense is never dreamed of in Germany — the 
humble beadle is the disciplinarian ; and yet, poor wight, 
he can only report the offenders to the university judge. 
When will the day come when the whole police system 
of our American schools will be abolished ? When our 
young men are trusted, and regarded as gentlemen and 
equals, a new hour will have come in the development of 
our educational life. 

The whole university system of Germany is now under- 
going serious reconsideration.* The last twenty-four years 
have wrought such changes in it that the best educators 

* Among the most recent German works treating the need of imme- 
diate university reform, are :— (i.) Meyer, " Die Zukmift der denischen 
Hochschulen!' Breslau : 1874. (2.) Reusch, " Theologische Facultdten 
oder Seminarien ? " Bonn: 1873. (3.) Holtzendorff, " Die Gegenwart." 
(Nos. 27, 28,) 1873. (4.) Ravoth, " Zur Revision und Reformirung der Lehr 
mul Lem-methode an den Universitaten." Berlin: 1874. 



i 14 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

to the future. The pr< 
decline in the number of students ling the Berlin 

University cannot be accounted 1 
increased expense of living. The new attention 

md natural scien< brought int 

ful working a large class of polytechnical and other ii 
tutions of popular grade that have made fearful inr 
upon most of the universities. Their old meth 
heavy, and the crisis of uncertainty as to what n« 
to adopt is painfully present. Singularly enough, while 
Some Americans are slavishly following in the 1 
of the Germans, and boasting that they are n 

the faultless German uni stem, the Germ 

themselves are proposing to ch 

American plan. They say their own, as it now 

and that the lack of unity in theology and general spirit 

in the German university is proving fatal. 

Veai >a 0, I'orner lamented the al of the 

element, and his jeremiad is more in . than when 

he uttered it. Holtzendorff pro| that the unive 

building Berlin be removed, ami that dormil 

built for the accommodation hi hundred stud< 

hing but this, he claims, can bring individi the 

university work and life. I; 

■ 
young theologians, five philol . ami t 

imodati 
dent -up hi and will lil 



GERMAN UNIVERSITIES. 115 



TABLE OF THE GERMAN UNIVERSITIES: 

Including the few others, identical in language, and generally- 
ranked with those of Germany. 
1873, 1874. 



Name and Location. „« 5.5 

C 5 oO 

— a 

I. Germany. *" °'" 

1. Berlin 1809 55 

2. Bonn 1818 58 

3. Breslau 1506 49 

4. Erlangen 1743 34 

5. Friburg 1457 38 

6. Giessen 1607 34 

7. Gottingen 1737 56 

8. Greifswald 1456 34 

9. H alle 1697 45 

10. Heidelberg 1386 40 

11. Jena 1558 26 

12. Kiel 1665 34 

13. Konigsberg 1544 44 

14. Leipsig 1409 55 

15. Marburg 1527 32 

16. Munich 1472 66 

17. Rostock 1419 27 

18. Strasburg 1566 50 

19. Tubingen 1477 4 1 

20. Wurtzburg 

II. German Austria. 

1. Gratz i486 42 

2. Innspruck 1673 38 

3. Prague 1347 51 

4. Vienna J 36s 79 

III. Switzerland. 

1. Bale 1460 30 

2. Berne 1834 30 

3. Zurich 1832 33 

IV. German Russia. 

1. Dorpat 1632 38 28 66 756 



w ~ *- rj 


a 


£ 5 
o 


I30 


185 


3.05I 


45 


103 


834 


5S 


107 


1,022 


21 


55 


408 


13 


5i 


294 


23 


57 


320 


4 s 


104 


979 


20 


54 


531 


47 


92 


961 


68 


108 


883 


38 


64 


425 


24 


58 


174 


30 


74 


58i 


92 


147 


2,845 


32 


64 


392 


45 


in 


1,128 


7 


34 


126 


24 


74 


405 


36 


77 


896 




54 


880 


30 


72 


722 


20 


58 


64o 


62 


"3 


1,442 


143 


222 


3-440 


30 


60 


150 


32 


62 


315 


42 


72 


462 



Total 1,159 I > J 88 2,398 25,067 

6 



n6 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 



T 



CHAPTER VI. 

HE1DE I- ■; 1- '< G U N 1 V I k 5 I IV. 

Ill', one who -rows weary of Heidd 
of compassion. My first visit to the lovely Little 
city, in [857, w;i> for the purpose of immediate matricu- 
lation in the university. In three days I I to be 

:xemplary student, hearing and 1 
lectures :i day, ami spending not in one hour in the 

twenty-four in the famous library. Hut it v. lull 

months before I could get within the lectun 
enticing was the scenery without. Ami, to be candid, I 
never matriculated at all in Heidelberg, but heard |< 
at irregular intervals. In spi I summer, the 

nades and hill-sides are simply i" rhe walks to the 

Molkenkur and Wolfsbrunnen, the stiff climb to the 
Konigstuhl, and a scramble among th 

ruins of the Castle, with its chaos of ivy. ne, 

t.. me a reality, hut rather a n spell, wh 

back was the apprehension that it won'. ken. 

: I many a 

time by the whole afternoon, one has a 

elad slo] ross the N I the d< 

Strauss, the author of th 

such 1 violent pan: man tl 



HEIDELBERG UNIVERSITY. WJ 

walked to and fro until every pebble and shrub became 
familiar to him ; and of the dwelling which will be remem- 
bered and visited for many years as the cheerful home of 
the sweet-spirited Bunsen. 

The following account of the Heidelberg professors, 
and of their brethren elsewhere, is the result of various 
opportunities to visit the institutions where they labor, to 
hear them in their lecture-rooms, to enjoy many delight- 
ful hours at some of their peaceful homes, to accompany 
some of them on their walks, and, above all, to be aided 
by many of them in directions for study. So far as Halle 
is concerned, I had the privilege of a period of uninter- 
rupted study and daily contact with its great minds. 

A feeling of sadness comes over any one not in sym- 
pathy with the prevailing theology in Heidelberg, who 
remembers what was taught there fifteen years ago, when 
its principal chairs were occupied by men of evangelical 
sentiment. The genial, original Hundershagen was there 
then, but went later to Bonn. His mantle seems to have 
fallen on Christlieb. Not even Herder himself lived more in 
the Old Testament period, or clothed it with a fresher life, 
than the magnificent Umbreit, the most eloquent German 
professor whom it has ever been my fortune to hear. But 
he has fallen, and his poetry has long ago become a living 
reality. The seat of Rothe, who was himself the very 
personification of his own great ethical system, is occu- 
pied by another. The places of these men, and of a few 
more of similar spirit that might be mentioned, are filled 
by others of laxer — they call it more liberal — theology. 
The consequence is, that the number of theological stu- 



n8 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

dents in Heidelberg has so diminished within a few i 
as to have become a serious question for the Baden « 
ernment All recent attempts to reinforce the theol 
cal faculty by the sion of the best theologians I 

Other universities have tailed, and must 

as the theology at Heidelberg maintains its present i. 

tive tone. 

Hitzig is now climbing up among th< Ger- 

man learning, for he has well passed his thi His 

has been a life of real study, all ..f it spent in academic 

seclusion, and may he taken a- imen of German 

professorial circulation from unive: to university, in 
answer to calls to and fro, from north to south. \\ 
inteen years old he studied theology at Heidell 

and in the following year went to H. die. and sat at the 

i ienius. In [828 he became I Ihe- 

ology at Heidelberg, and four years afterward went 
/. iri( h in a similar * apacity. IK- returned 
Heidelberg, in 1861, where he now gives the rij 
his long study. He lecture-. .n requires, on all 

branch* iment science, (.attain subje 

led with the New Testament, and on the 1.. 
the Semitic stem. Now tli.it Tuch is 
with Ewald at the lie. id of the < »ld 1 lament 1 
criti 1 lermany. 1 le d as an 

nd his first work, the • 

illy applied to the < >ld Testanu 
of a hi. I learning which have ripened in hi 

nd exposition Ims, P 

ilomon, Jeremiah, Eceki the M 



HEIDELBERG UNIVERSITY. 1 19 

Prophets, and lesser works of like import. His criticism 
is bold, and, if very learned, yet betrays far less sympathy 
with the truths of revelation than patience and thorough- 
ness of research. 

Hitzig is tall, angular, and awkward to excess. If the 
veriest countryman who brings vegetables to the market- 
floor of Faneuil Hall were placed on the rostrum of any 
senate, he would not present a more abominable violation 
of all the maxims of elocutionary taste and ease than this 
same archaeologist. Hitzig looks for all the world as if he 
might be some long-lost and forgotten hieroglyphic, sudden- 
ly fished up from the slimy bank of the Nile or Euphrates. 
His very clothing appears as if it might have been made 
for any other gaunt man sooner than for him. His arms 
are as long as Lincoln's, and, while lecturing, he folds 
them and swings them about as if practicing some system 
of gymnastics of which Dio Lewis has never heard. He 
sits down and rises again at intervals, poking out and 
twisting his long fingers as if trying to make a knot or 
braid of them, or to practice upon his auditors some an- 
cient alphabet for the deaf and dumb. His gloves are 
hardly at rest on one side of his desk before they have to 
emigrate to the other. His notes are of immense quarto 
size, and every time he wishes to turn them over he has 
to go through the motions similar to those of a man read- 
ing all sides of a double-sheet newspaper without cutting 
the leaves. Like nearly all German professors, he wears 
a ring — some of them indulge in several. Hitzig's ring, 
having to be an antique, or else not at all to his taste, is set 
with some immense red stone, whose brilliancy contrasts 



UFE IN THE FATHERLANi 

pl< with his thill brown notes, three mil 

r knife on which would I immens 

amount of manipulation. 

Hitzig, in the only lecture I have heard by him, was in 
his element. 1 [is subje • 
of travel, and hospitality of the ancien' 
to have just taken a journej life-tin 

among, the inhabitants the time of t; 

Jud lie showed how the other 

nations in social habits, and he 

mesticatcd anion- them kh among the nd 

Romans. The wayfarer did i I . when he h 
to pay with. A little present :■ 

much thought of as the payment < : ilL W 

travelers met I 

inferi iched the ground with their m 

rhe 1 1 
knew nothing of tl 

when a in hot: — 

enlarged upon, and abun but n< 

Hitzig, with all his antiq 

■ 
\\\ the r tli.it 

rem.uk 

i 

amoi 

thn He 



HEIDELBERG UNIVERSITY. 121 

sistently enough, used the Bible, as well he might, as his 
chief authority, though it is too well known that he denies 
exegetically the authenticity of the very books which he 
uses as his strongest corroborative evidence. On the 
topography of Palestine, our American Robinson is his 
great stay, as he is of all men of learning in the same 
department throughout Germany and Great Britain. In 
order that the students might not lose any important term, 
Hitzig wrote, from time to time, on the blackboard, the 
original words, in the different Oriental languages con- 
cerned, and so readily and beautifully as betrayed his per- 
fect familiarity with the Hebrew and its cognates. 

Schenkel, also of the Theological Faculty, has great 
popular power as a speaker, and it is impossible for any 
one to go to sleep while hearing him, or to forget what he 
says after leaving his presence. He is forcible, sometimes 
very eloquent, but brimful of inconsistencies, and some- 
times contradicts himself more than once in the same 
hour. He speaks, apparently, with utter self-forgetfulness, 
and in a short time can work himself into a perspiration, 
his cravat-bow around to the nape of his neck, and the pens 
out of the hands of his hearers. A lecture on the temp- 
tation of Christ, indicates both his style and theological 
tone. " The temptation of Christ," said he, " is no religious 
incantation, like Mephistopheles in Faust ; neither was it 
an historical occurrence, as presented by the New Testa- 
ment ; much less was it a myth, as Strauss holds. It has 
simply an historical germ, as with the miracle of changing 
the water into wine at the marriage at Cana in Galilee, 
but was not a fact in its particulars. The New Testament 



1 22 I. IFE IN THE F. 1 THERJL l XI >. 

lint of Chi mptation is Oriental, and is a narra- 

tive framed according to the id what the Church 

afterward thought Christ to be. Evil is reflected in the 
teniptatimi. Christ, in order to be ready for his i 

compelled to resist the principle of evil, and thi 
the meaning of the Satan described by Matthew. Christ 
felt that he could save Israel, and in his resistance of the 
principle of evil he showed his capacity f«»r accomplish 
his object He felt that his call was to pour balm into 
the wounds of his times. The first quest rhich Christ 

had to ask were: 'Am I not the Old Testament M 
siah?' 'Am 1 n«»t the Son of David?' The tern; 

tion now came to say: 'You are this very i 

you can best prove it if you will do what I tell you — 
namely: restore the -lory of Jerusalem and the splei 
of Israel.' The temptation to enjoy hims 
honor from men, to h it il 

was all an inward feeling. I le 

that the Messianic kingdom was merely to take the proph- 
9 of the Old Testament in their literal si 'ion. 

Tin- Jews were full of the ( >ld Testament Mi- 
ami Christ was inwardly tempted to 1 with it. 
whole triumph over these inward stir: 

preparatory work for th< mplishmeni 
II did not proclaim himself the M 

henkel's lectui iund, j' 
in thrusts at the prevailing 

tin- orthodox view ol tural autl I i he 

bechurche 
n any man ol Ins i a] \a an i 



HEIDELBERG UNIVERSITY. 1 23 

any subject not kindred to theology. The people hear 
him and read his writings, because he speaks and writes 
freshly. As a thorough scholar, a profound theologian, a 
man entitled to the claims he makes, he commands the 
respect of no mind in Germany not in harmony with his 
negative views. He is, confessedly, the most complete 
theological charlatan of Germany. If his efforts shall 
have the result of making the orthodox divines throw 
away their stilts, tread squarely on the ground with the 
people, and use the language of the hungering masses, 
they will not be in vain. Already there are gratifying 
signs that he and his school are unintentionally exerting 
this very influence. I counted but seventeen students in 
his lecture-room when I heard him last. According to 
very late accounts, he has but two. If one should enter 
the large halls of the evangelical theological professors at 
Halle or Berlin, he would have to go early to get a good 
seat. The young men of Germany are on the side of 
orthodox theology, and this is only one of the proofs. 

Dr. Gass fills the chair of Systematic Theology, made 
vacant by the death of the beloved Rothe. One would 
suppose that history would be more to his taste, in view of 
his elaborate " History of Protestant Doctrines," on which 
his reputation chiefly rests. He has his notes beside him, 
but uses them very little. He is small-sized, and has 
the air of the cultivated gentleman, and of the lover of 
society quite as much as of books. Dr. Gass has a pleas- 
ant voice, but never makes a surprise, like Hitzig in 
an adjoining room. In a lecture on angelology and 

demonology, he said : " The idea of angels has never 
6* 



124 LI 11: IN THE FATHERLAND. 

■ the Christian faith. All the prim 
our religion would be the same without them. Such 

exist, neverth< 
human welfare. The) rnment, 

and constitute an important part of it. In to the 

question, 'What are the angels?' the New lent 

gives but little information, and speaks only of thi 

belief in angels is very important, for it 
animates the whole realm of 1 lief in den 

always had a hold on the moral life of man. 
ity, by refining it, is distinguished in th 
dualistic and gno intiquity. The script- 

ural idea of Satan, and of demons in general, is. tl 

esent general principles. The figui - itan in 

.simply shows how near the principle 1 could 

in ( rod's pn I he Ne« 1 I -•anient 

of Satan and demons bears t: 

Of heathendom. The whole idea of the 
and demons in the New Testament is simj 
th.- conquest of sin over all opposition." 

After leaving this lecture it was difficult to tell i 
what ( lass thought of Satan, whether he not. 

I ked my friend what he understood the learned 

to hold ,,n this point. sing my own failure I 

any clear idea of his meaning he. - he m< 

that the qualit . ual ami verital 

in t! hut th 

stand Satan, he must he metapln su all\ 1 

was now : r dinnei 



HALLE.— T WO OF I TS NES TORS. 1 2 5 



o 



CHAPTER VII. 

HALLE. TWO OF ITS NESTORS. 

NE does not need to walk over five minutes from 
the railway station of Halle before being convinced 
that he is in a really German university town. Excepting 
some new buildings in the suburbs, the main features 
of the place must be very nearly what they were centuries 
ago. An old round tower occupies a prominent position 
as you enter the long, narrow, cobble-stone alley, which 
is inclosed on the left by the same rough high wall that 
was a part of the fortifications in the Middle Ages. On 
the right are lodging houses for the students, some of 
whom may be seen leaning over the broad window-sills, 
half enveloped in clouds of tobacco smoke from their long 
pipes. By taking a broader but more circuitous street to 
the University, a bookstore is seen at every few paces. 
The windows are plentifully supplied with the later works 
of the Halle professors, the spare interstices being filled 
with their portraits. I was glad, on one of my later visits, 
to buy at a shop an excellent carte de visite of Tholuck, 
representing his bloodless, leathery, wrinkled face, better 
than any portrait of him I had seen. The bookstores 
increase in number as you approach the University, until 
you reach the last one, Herr Petersen's, in which velvet- 
coated and long-booted students ; books and pamphlets, 
stretching from Faust's day down to ours ; maps, old, new, 



i-' i LIFE IN THE FATh 

andnon 

in such net 
nly in an antiquarian b 

Uli: . n. 

Julius M uller, the author of the 
," and celebrated throughout 1 
of led . • I * 

his " Docti ::... 
; ' 

umcs. Th( n his 

appe I [e is n 

on account 

a thicker and weaker h the 

play as important - the 

same pleasant I 
with ili« 

i time I 

whom 

turer did i. 
students ; it »■ 

• 
tion. M 



HALLE.— TWO OF ITS NESTORS. \2J 

religion to social life, of the grounds of real social free- 
dom, and of the utility and necessity of overcoming indi- 
vidual peculiarities for the public good. It was just such 
a lecture as one would expect from M filler — profoundly 
learned, fortified by the strongest authorities, and, best of 
all, in perfect harmony with the Scriptures. When the 
hall-clock struck the hour for the professor to cease, he 
kept on reading toward the close of his section, amid the 
general buzz of his auditors, who were evidently deter- 
mined to hear no more, but busied themselves with cork- 
ing their inkstands, folding their notes, and finding their 
way to their hats, canes, and the door. 

I was surprised to see how well Tholuck looked, com- 
pared with his delicate and even death-like appearance in 
former years. His lecture-room was well filled — a test of 
his undiminished hold on the students. He lectured on 
the twelfth chapter of the Gospel of John. One of the 
students had a copy of the last edition of Tholuck's 
" Commentary on John " before him, endeavoring in this 
way to follow the lecturer. " But this was impossible. The 
old body was so vitalized by new blood, that he was com- 
pelled to close the book frequently, and hear the newest 
and freshest thoughts of the man who was giving to his 
audience a better commentary on the Fourth Gospel than 
he had ever given to the printer. Tholuck was almost blind, 
and had to bring his notes well nigh into contact with his 
face in order to decipher them. When he leisurely laid 
them down, and looked right out upon the students as if 
he could see the most distant face and into the deepest 
heart, he always said what took firmest hold, and was 



lined t.i be I »t in mind I 

■ 

handlui 
lildren. 
-luck U compelled to do 1 

ftion, and, inde< 
: one <>r i 
en the consumptiv< 

but he is now thn i ten. 1 1< 

■ 
of h 

tribution of time for literary lal 
twelve in the mon ks up and down th< 

. promenade in his 
; I re, in this only idle hour at I 
thc< 

■ ■ 
comi nsult him on ii 

and |uaintai 

main miles and years ha> 
if the i 
his promen; 
■ 

still 

■ 

dl \\ 



HALLE.— TWO OF ITS NESTORS. 1 29 

to be conveyed to his friends, readers, and co-workers 
beyond the sea, he looked toward the blue sky, and, a 
smile playing over his face, replied in a voice full of 
pathos : "/Tell them I am still working hard here for the 
higher work of heaven Tj 

In Germany they celebrate every thing — birthdays, bap- 
tismal-days, wedding-days, days of induction into office, 
of receiving degrees and titles, and, indeed, all manner of 
days around which one can hang a scrap of interest or 
romance. Any excuse is regarded better than none in 
order to have a resting spell, an extra dinner, a little con- 
gratulatory poetry, and all one's friends at the board. You 
are hardly over one of these scenes before another one is 
upon you, and life in the Fatherland is one continual cele- 
bration. Such an event as the completion of a half a 
century of steady work in the halls of a quiet German 
university must be numbered among the " white days " of 
life, and the year 1870 was distinguished by two of these 
in Halle alone, the former being that of Professor Leo, the 
well-known historian, and the latter that of the still bet- 
ter known Tholuck. I remember often passing Professor 
Leo, years ago, in the dirty old streets of Halle, and little 
dreamed that the brisk little old man — his white, round 
head crowned jauntily with a hat that might once have 
been black, and have had some shape — had then been 
writing and lecturing history for thirty-six years. But he 
has survived it all, and has, probably, a half dozen more 
books slumbering in his busy brain. As to how many 
new courses of lectures, essays, and political articles he is 
incubating, who will dare to guess ? 



I jO LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

first to the third. 1870, th 1 of 

1. k 's half century of work in the Univi lalle 

ited in a manner worthy of hi and 

the thousands of his grateful disciples. The intin 

.1 relations which he has cultivated with the stud* 
from the very day he entered on his duties in the un: 
sity, ace »unt in a large measure for the 
from all pai I iermany who were present at the gath- 

ering. The festivities commenced in th< Prince 

Hotel, where the dining-hall lied witl 

Tholuck delivered an address to them, calling them " 

disciples or admirer-, hut friends in Ch 

retrospect of his laboi an instructor and an author. 

told of his conversion, and that he had made i: 
object not to be a "book pi .' but a "student ; 

or," and that it had 1 Lid truthfully of him that 

" he cultivated rather the 

i, and of Students than candidal. He had b< 

• Halle to fight the prevailing Rationalism, and l< 

way to a better tal He urged 

audi have but "i a — Him. only Him." 

I a the second morning of tin 

ity Musical Club serenaded the 
•• Praise the Lord, the mighty K Th 

man said, in his acknowlcd 

\hk h we h thank < 

sinfulness, and real penil 

k. in I 
wlii- 
All the hall 



HALLE.— T WO OF ITS NES TORS. 1 3 1 

occupied, either by the friends of the doctor or by the mul- 
titudes of wreaths, bouquets, and garlands that they had 
brought and piled into pyramids. 

But the testimonial Kogel brought with him, from 
the Prussian Ministry of Public Worship — the Star 
of the Red Eagle of the second class, with oaken 
branch — was most prominent. This was old Kaiser 
William's tribute. Court-preacher Hoffmann was the 
bearer of the salutations of the Ecclesiastical Council, 
and called Tholuck " one of the outmost guards in 
the conflict of the Church, a veritable Church Father 
of the nineteenth century ; " and nobody, not even the 
Rationalists themselves, will question the merit of the 
term. The rector of the Halle University acknowledged 
the services of Tholuck for science, the Church, and the 
University, and presented to him a special semi-centen- 
nial production in Latin, by Professor Schlottman, enti- 
tled " The Union of the Roman and German Nations." 
In replying to this, the doctor told the process of his 
dealing with the Halle skeptics in his younger days, and 
that, notwithstanding, he had never wanted for friends in 
all the four Faculties. The congratulations of the students 
were embodied in a neat speech by one of the number ; 
the Theological Faculty congratulated through its dean ; 
the various universities throughout Germany were repre- 
sented personally by their very brightest stars ; and the pas- 
tors of different cities sent one or more thither, to say that 
their love and admiration were unabated. An album, 
containing the portraits of all the amanuenses who had 
served the doctor through his long life as an author, was 



/.// \THERLAND. 

the number, him- 
iatic — Superintendent M 11< 

tlphus n and h(>: 

sionary organiz and I know not how ither 

ciations — many of which had r< I their very life 

from his sympathetic pen — sent re; 
sor Jacobi, the Church historian, touched the 
chord in host and guests when h< the 

doctor, written and signed by thi in the German 

army at that very hour before I 
feeling of gratitude, undiminished love, and 
for mat [good work for the old man. 

the 3 mortally wounded, and hi^ 

in a trembling hand. A sum of i 
friends," amounting to four thousand and seven hund 
thai I holuck fund for tl. 

of indigent th< .1 stud< nts. 1 h ibu- 

tions from England, Holland, and . 
In the afternoon more than thre< 
down to the dinner. I 
Thoiu. k ibian by birth, wa 

•ion and compliment, and a I 

1 lourt-preacher II ffi nun, who l 
since in tl l 

ntrymen to th< 

• the l II 

win. h has the 
the tl 

d with th< i 






HALLE.— T WO OF 1 TS NESTORS. 1 3 3 

Bismarck, Dr. Von Moltke, Dr. Von Roon ! The dinner 
closed by singing the old hymn : " Let all praise God ! " 
In the evening there was an immense torchlight proces- 
sion by the students, and far into the night the quiet 
Halleans heard Luther's hymn, " A strong tower is our 
God," reverberating through their crooked streets. Tho- 
luck urged his theological serenaders to compensate for 
the chasms of war by deeper and truer spiritual life. 

The guests started for their various homes the next day, 
happy to have seen once more, and probably for the last 
time, the old teacher of their youth — himself, perhaps, the 
youngest of them all ; for, like Schleiermacher, Tholuck 
seems to have made a bond with youth never to part com- 
pany. It would have been just like him of the laboring 
oar to rise as early as usual the morning after the festivi- 
ties to his honor, more full of literary plans for the future 
than when, half a century previously, the apparently dying 
consumptive entered the lists with a learned book on the 
" Sufism, or the Pantheistic Theosophy of the Persians." 

The two things that struck me most of all he said dur- 
ing the celebration were, first, that though he had "always 
been bent, he had never been broken;" referring to his 
continual sickness from childhood, and to his unceasing 
work under it ; and, second, that he was on the most 
friendly terms with every one of his eighty-four associate 
professors. 

Truly, that sun is going down in a cloudless sky. Long 
may the students still call the man of their love, " The 
eternal Tholuck ! " 






LIFE IN Til! 



HAPTER VIII. 

MM. BERLIN 
I 

* I ttingen i 

ma in medicine, Munich in i 
guages, while Halli »r, in tl. 

but noG 

tan, and mal 

irn- 

to the left at the 

• the in: •' 

icrly ti. 

l William III., in I 

It s; N 

!' 

1 : 

the 



THE BERLIN UNIVERSITY. 1 35 

volumes and fourteen thousand MSS. in the library, every- 
one of which is carefully recorded in its catalogue of eight 
hundred and eighty-seven folio volumes. The most im- 
portant works are never permitted to be taken from the 
library. There is one room in which those who wish to 
consult books can read and write at leisure. There is 
nothing imposing in the appearance of the university 
building ; it is dingy, devoid of all architectural display, 
and, with the exception of the refreshing little plot of 
grass in the front court, is uninviting in the extreme. 
But a day spent under its roof in hearing the lectures of 
its professors, and seeing its throngs of students, gathered 
from all parts of the world, gives one an idea of the mag- 
nitude of the intellectual influence of the university upon 
the age, which cannot be derived from the most faithful 
description. . In the quarter-hour interval between the 
lectures, the halls are thronged with the professors of all 
the departments, hurrying to and from their lectures, with 
students of many nationalities, and with visitors anxious 
to hear, though but once, the men whose books they had 
been for years feeding on. 

On the register posted at the entrance of the building 
I counted, when last in Berlin, the names of one hundred 
and twenty-six professors and licentiates, many of whom 
lecture every day in the week, and some oftener, though 
the most infirm only read once or twice. The aged Ranke 
was doing good service still ; the elder Nitzsch was like- 
wise kept at his post. His son, if his dry lecture on 
Romans which I heard be a fair specimen of his exegetical 
skill, gives but little evidence of his father's acuteness. 



LIFE IN THE FATHERLANi 

who died in i is -till in tl 

He was ere I in form, quick in movement, 

rare pictun H 

rapidly through the hall, and evidently knew well ho 

.v his way adn.itly through the crowd toward 
lure-room or pen. Lepsius, the 1 

IS if his heart were nearer the pyramids than 
Berlin. Twesten, short, re therly, m 

he distinguished in a moment by his picture Piper, one 
nf the pleasanti es in all the throng, hurried hastily up 

to the third story, where he could feed upon his rich lit- 
tle museum of Christian antiquiti 
sor i N ider and Niedner, gave pi 
of useful work, lie appeared to be brimful of his th« 
and seemed conscious of hi- lility in contim 

the labors of his celebral nly the 

hell struck the hour for lectures to recomm 
halls w< I as by magic, the l< 

wen .aiidn ind could be heard but th . 

of] 

I' is now nearly fifl 
hesitation, i hip in the 

i Kiel, to take th< 

in Bci lin. 1 !<• 

and still stands firmly at his post, lectin 
of tun. k on I 

John's G 

i 

middle , wcai s the i 



THE BERLIN UNIVERSITY. 1 37 

school ; and has the habit of commencing his lecture be- 
fore he is fairly in his chair. I saw his lips in motion 
some time before it was possible to catch a single sen- 
tence, and sometimes not a word of a sentence. He has 
his notes before him, but seldom consults them. The 
lecture I last heard — one of his course on Symbolical 
Theology — related to the morbid and abnormal phenom- 
ena of Christian life, in which he spoke of the part which 
fanaticism had played in the history of the Church. True 
faith, he said, consists in the harmonious union of nature 
and the supernatural. Fanaticism becomes superstition 
when it unites nature and the supernatural improperly. 
Superstition does not do justice to the natural, and unbe- 
lief does not do justice to the supernatural. In all that 
Twesten said there was not the slightest indication of 
mental imbecility. He has ripened into a sweet old age. 
His face might well be the study of a Fra Angelico, wish- 
ing to portray cheerfulness, simplicity, and love, crowning 
a long, hard-working, Christian life. 

Hengstenberg had to lecture in a large room. His 
course on Psalms was so largely attended that, according 
to his own statement, there was not a single vacant seat. 
He walked quickly to his chair, said " Gentlemen," and 
then read such a clear and concise lecture as one would 
expect from a man who is impressed with the magnitude 
of his theme, and the part his auditors are to take in the 
Church of the future. The Scriptures, he said, are in- 
spired not merely in a general, but in a special respect. 
Reason does not know how to decide between what may 
and what, may not be inspired. Inspiration is elevating, 



138 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

purifying, and hortatory. A writing n if it 

belongs t<» the Scriptures. The < >1<1 . 

only remnant we have <>f the antediluvian ; 

lation and inspiration belong to each 1 the 

pomplement <>t" the other. 

Hengstenberg's peculiar manner of delivery p 
enough to disturb the sol ne wh< 

regular attendant upon his lectures. He had a di 
harsh voice when on a high key, hut his 
not unpleasant, yet often so low ..ike hi- un- 

intelligible. Though he would eall I 
yet turned in his chair ; 1 up : 

wheeled around on one side ; rested his n the I 

of his chair; looked out of the window at the fal 

then sprang up again ; pulled his chair int 
tion, or out of position, as the 
down into it again ; wheeled round; t 
buttoned and unbuttoned it : II the w 

nad a manuscript which it was a wonder, amid all his 

twichinj rn into fragments, 

round him. Thus his lecture went on until th< 

ke stopped hi rid sent tin 

out of the room. 1 i his 

lie might 

idiblc to many of his stud idle th< 

out with a lion-like viol 
some of his edit in th 

■ 



THE BERLIN UNIVERSITY. 139 

attached to the Mediation Theology — indeed, is one of 
its most industrious cultivators. Not one of the elder 
theologians whom I heard suggested by manner and lan- 
guage as forcibly as did he that sense of the intensity 
of life which was the great characteristic and real mag- 
netic secret of Arnold of Rugby. He is of slight build, 
has a pleasant face, long, disheveled hair, and a forehead 
bisected by a bulging, perpendicular vein. Throughout 
his lecture he moves mechanically back and forth in his 
chair, introduces his snuff-box at leisure, and gives his 
watch-guard as thorough a handling as the subject of his 
lecture. He lectures on dogmatic theology. The stu- 
dents are deeply attached to him, 

Semisch and Steinmeyer are in the prime of life, and 
stand midway between those we have already named and 
their juniors, who are working up into position. The for- 
mer professor is second from the sainted Neander in the 
chair of Church history, but has few of that great man's 
rare qualities. Semisch lectures to a large audience. I 
once heard him give a charming picture of the decline 
of paganism before the enthusiastic devotion and mission- 
ary spirit of the early Church. At a certain point in his 
lecture he laid down his notes, arose from his seat, closed 
his eyes, put his hand to his face as if in extreme pain, 
and made quite a lengthy and, to me, alarming pause. 
All the students dropped their pens. My first thought 
was that he was suddenly taken ill, perhaps had apoplexy. 
But it proved to be only his usual way of delivering his 
extempore episodes. He spoke about ten minutes very 

earnestly, without once looking at his notes, and then sat 

1 



l to them again, when the imed I 

tig. 1 illy the best ] le lecture, but 

it is just tl : the university lectures thai 

1. either by profi udent, I 

down. The students call them < . hich 

they mean, talking from the heart. 

teinroeyer i n an ami. ben 

he published an excellent little volume 

principal work ntrihutions to the Understandinj 

the Script i work which has had tin 

vera! editions. He i 
for his course "u practical 1 He has the 

ance "1 a refined, Christian gentleman J thin 

in person ; do< 
prepare himself spe< ially for th< 

II has paid more attention to h Ition tl. 

his col!. t in 

her-lik< m He has th ;•■ culiar habit, in the 

early part of his lecture, of laying th< 
right hand lengthwise his nose, and ke. until 

he finishes the point he is tryin I 

. whether in heaven 01 in tin- : 

rhe Church is the I 
n ; it spiin-s directly fl 

: the Church. 1 

I 
It i 
in t I 
them the 



THE BERLIN UNIVERSITY. 141 

Church. The preacher is not responsible to the parish 
for the faithful discharge of his duty, but rather to God ; 
for the Church never called him to preach — he was called 
from heaven. The preacher does not derive his commis- 
sion from the congregation ; he takes nothing from them, 
but takes all to them from God. All the duties of the 
preacher may be summed up in one term — " those who 
take care of the sheep ; " he is the pastor. 

Messner's theological stand-point may be imagined 
from the fact that he is editor of the " New Evangelical 
Church Gazette," the German organ of the Evangelical 
Alliance. Fie read a carefully prepared and scholarly lec- 
ture on Paul's Epistles to the Corinthians. He had but 
fifteen hearers, but, like all who have become illustrious 
in the German universities, he must commence at the bot- 
tom of the heap. The top is as much for him as for any 
one else, but he is too dry ever to reach it. 

Kleinert is thought by many to be the most gifted, as 
he is without doubt one of the most evangelical, of all the 
younger theologians. 

The prince of the philosophical faculty, Trendelenburg, 
died a few months since. He went to Berlin as the suc- 
cessor of Schelling ; he was a prolific author, the most 
of his works having clustered around his favorite theme, 
the Aristotelian Philosophy. His great work, " Logical 
Investigations," appeared over thirty years ago. In this he 
laid down the principles of what is the nearest approach 
to an original system, which he has elaborated in his later 
works, " Niobe," " The Moral Idea of Right," and the 
" Cologne Cathedral." He lectured, of course, in one of 



142 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

had an immense nun 
gtude ■ | rson he was tall, neatly attired, and 9 

the heavy, hand-broad ci ' cn in 

I, stiffnecked portraits on the old palace walls 

many. Hi- manner was dull and sluggish in the. 

nis , cely mure than a hoarse, rough n 

quite in contrast with the Ptolemaic "mi. the 

spheres." whieh he so drowsily descanted upon. It w 
thin- for any str 

Even many «.f the students in regular hearing 
upied their time about equally betw« ippy 

notes and making ear-tnimpel f their hai H ndel- 

enburg was a I philosopher, hut his 

barbarously poor— hardly equaled in its line even in the 
Bril Parliament 



MUNICH.— DOELLINGER AND SC HELLING. 1 43 



CHAPTER IX. 

MUNICH. DOELLINGER AND SCHELLING. 

PHE University of Munich is a Roman Catholic insti- 
■*- tution, and is the principal school of learning in 
Bavaria. It was founded in 1472, first located in Ingold- 
stadt, afterward removed to Landshut, (1800,) and finally 
established, in 1826, in Munich. It is situated on the 
Ludwigstrasse, a very quiet street, yet one of the most 
splendid in Europe, and, with the opposite Priests' Semi- 
nary, forms a large quadrangle, which is ornamented by two 
fountains, copied from those in St. Peter's Place in Rome. 
For many years Doellinger has been the leading pro- 
fessor in the Roman Catholic University at Munich. He 
has long been the acknowledged leader of the liberal wing 
of the Romanists, and, as a penalty for his independence, 
has been publicly excommunicated by the Pope from its 
fold. This last exercise of papal authority against a recal- 
citrant son came to pass on this wise : The convocation 
of the Vatican Council in 1870 was the signal for new 
discontent throughout the length and breadth of the Ro- 
man Catholic Communion. Pere Hyacinthe, in Paris, was 
not the only one who saw in the coming Council true 
cause for alarm, knowing full well that every effort would 
be made by the Pope to impose additional restrictions upon 
the whole Catholic body. Every liberal Catholic, however, 
looked to Germany for the leadership of the advanced 



1 44 LIFE IN 'J HE F. I THERL* LVD. 

• .hi «.f the Church, and th in vain. 

For a long time Doellinger had been ; 
the ulna measures of Catholicism, and he neve 

: demanding that it adapt itself to th 
nations, and to the growth of intelli I the 

w.rld. I le did this through no sympathy with 
ism, but in the interest of Catholicism, f<»r he belii 
that only in this way could it preserve its life 
in strength and influem e. Being himself an anient n 

of the flock, he \\ trous of doing all he could to 

■ iid perpetuate its integrity. I' 
of a piece with his whole life that he should 
alarm against the probable adoption by the Council of the 

ma of papal infallibility, hut his protest did not 
vent the act. When the dogma was adopted he did 
blindly and tacitly acquiesce, hut wrote an 

nth unwearied dilif 
hut proving with the logical skill and I 
tinguish all the fruits of his busy pen. h 
in the end, void, would he th 
sense of every impartial man. Thei 

threat from Rom. ! last v. adlhcthir 

immunication, with it-^ »nd- 

on the 

■■ ran thu — 

in ' 

11 



MUNICH.— DOELLINGER AND SCHELLING. 145 

He cursed him at board, he cursed him in bed ; 
From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. 
He cursed him in sleeping, that every night 
He should dream of the devil and wake in a fright. 
He cursed him in eating, he cursed him in drinking, 
He cursed him in coughing, in sneezing, in winking ; 
He cursed him in sitting, in standing, in lying ; 
He cursed him in walking, in riding, in flying ; 
He cursed him living, he cursed him dying ! 

Never was heard such a terrible curse ! 
But what gave rise 
To no little surprise, 

Nobody seemed one penny the worse." 

But we must go back a little, for the whole life of such 
a man as Dr. Doellinger is a matter of public interest. 

John Joseph Ignatius Doellinger was born at Bamberg, 
Bavaria, on the 28th of February, 1799. The family had 
long been distinguished for remarkable talents, and the 
father of young Doellinger was, in his day, celebrated 
throughout Germany as a physiologist, physician, and 
naturalist. His portrait and bust are frequently to be met 
with in the scientific cabinets of Bavaria. He was pro- 
fessor in the University of Bamberg at the close of the 
last century and the beginning of the present, and was 
regarded, in consequence of bis discoveries and writings, 
as a leading authority in various departments of natural 
science. The son, chiefly through his mother's influence, 
was destined for the study of theology, and this tendency 
was given to his early life. In the year 1822 he was con- 
secrated a priest, and appointed chaplain of Oberschein- 
feld, a village in Bavaria. His natural desire led him to 
teaching, and in the following year he received an appoint- 
ment as teacher in the Lyceum at Aschaffenburg, near 



146 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

Frankfort-on-the-Maia In 1826 he was el 
of Church History and Church Law in the University 
Munich, where he received immediately various honorary 
offices, and was nominated and appointed chief librarian 
of the University library. Doellinger soon ted 

attention as professor 1« of the thorough and en- 

chanting style of his lectures. His method was calm, 
argumentative, and abounding in surpri- 

Once, during an I. ister ramble, it was my privil 
be prcent at one of his lectures on Church history, and 
to note some of the charactei of the man. I 

to lecture at eleven o'clock in the morning, and a mo 

crowd of laughing young priests, with shaven < 

black coats reaching to the ankles, indicated his lec: 

room. The room was capable of accommodating from 

three to four hundred auditors, but the 
more than two thirds tilled. The lecturer entered in the 
most quiet and deliberate manner le, and. hardly 

Looking at his hear< Iraly laid his notes upon the I 

desk before him, and commenced his lectin 
if talking to a -roup of little children. He was in 
ment, evidently, when standing before his quiet and:. 
of theological students, among whom one could easily 
idly admixture of foreigners. While hi 

ry low.il was .ils,, as distinct Ludl- 

bleat the nether end of the great hall. 

1 1, Bcemi I to be talking to two or t: 

On a subject which was uppermost in his mind inch 

led to think should be the same in the - 1 

the wa> in whit h his liberal the 



MUNICH.— DOELLINGER AND SCHELLING. 1 47 

and there, one would judge him to be one of those men 
with whom you cannot talk ten minutes without seeing the 
very inmost heart, and without being warmed anew by their 
sympathy. If he had been lecturing on the Tower of 
Babel, there is not a doubt that he would have found some 
moment, some golden opportunity, to let fall a sentence 
or two in favor of bold and liberal thought, and of- the 
largest freedom to the conscience. This he did abun- 
dantly when I listened to him. 

He was lecturing on modern Church history, and it 
would have been impossible to select any one of his course 
in which all the peculiarities of his theological views 
and methods were more completely combined than in this. 
His theme was " English Puritanism and its Relation to 
the Established Church ; " but he did not hesitate to cross 
the channel repeatedly, and even the intervening centuries, 
too, in order to weigh Continental Calvinism in the Cath- 
olic balance, and to strive to show the unfitness of the 
whole system for the religious demands of the present day. 
But Calvinism is Protestanism, he continued, in its un- 
mixed state, while Lutheranism is only a corrupt form of 
Catholicism. The Anglican Church has never been free 
from vestiges of Catholicism, and these are now its saving 
principles. During every period of its history, men have 
stood up within its fold and called aloud for a return to 
the faith which it had abandoned. Just here Doellinger 
embraced his opportunity to laud Pusey and his whole 
ritualistic crew, yet he did it so calmly and jesuitically, 
that his mine of secret enthusiasm became hardly percep- 
tible for a moment. In consequence of the continued 



LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

sympathy of the Anglican Church ; 
linger held that i* must be 

nly temporary and il, and thai 

\ i must labor I >re the unity. I 

the reign of James [..the Ang] Church assum< 

new form. When Arminianisra came in as a the 
element, it acted as to the Cal 

for Arminianism was nothing else than a confes 
Catholic doctrine of justification by faith. I the 

most remarkable features of English Calvinism is. that it 
diil not perfectly control all English theol< the 

Ang-sbui ' ifession has controlled Luthi i. The 

on is. that the English mind would n<>t submit v 
brought within such narrow limits, and thu> 1 
stands a chance of bein n controlled ' nolic 

theology. The Romanizing tendencies thei 
and constantly on the in< 
The sketch of Archbishop Laud and his influei 
terity was worthy of Pusey himself. 

was very fairly. ind there can be no -round 

omplaint at Doellii stimateof the 

lations of Anglican t! 

in ti 1 1 eminent and of French influ 1 1 

almost wholly inism, yet he did n 

1 of abu .11 las im| 

and 

I. Thi 
antism 

he times, the playthin 
but icd Catholicism stand- 



M UNICH.—DOELLINGER AND SC HELLING. 1 49 

all unite to develop it as the times require, it will accom- 
plish what it used to do — control all the movements and 
thinking of the civilized world. Doellinger's theology is 
very attractive to many of the English Catholics and 
ritualistic Anglicans, who are said to visit him in large 
numbers. He is known to admire warmly both the En- 
glish Government and people. Those who know him 
personally say that he is already a " half-Englishman." 

Doellinger is slightly above medium height ; he stands 
while lecturing, contrary to the custom of many of his col- 
leagues, and does not wear the priest's robe. There is 
nothing about him that would lead you to think him a 
priest ; while every student before him had the tonsure, 
the black stockings, and the long black robe dangling about 
his feet. When lecturing, his pale, wrinkled, angular face 
sometimes lights up with an intrusive smile, a tell-tale 
sprite, that reveals where his real feelings and opinions lie. 
He now reads from his manuscript, and now speaks ex- 
temporaneously ; does not hurry ; seems for the most time 
utterly destitute of passion, and is the very personifica- 
tion of sincerity and simplicity. Awhile after the lecture 
I hea:d, I happened to pass him on the street, on the same 
day, and had a nearer view of him than when listening to 
his lecture, His thin form was slightly bent ; his face, 
now not kindled by the presence and light of his students, 
wore a sad expression, which was deepened by the lines 
that age had been making, but which I had not noticed 
before. Some of his features, especially the nose, had an 
emphatic Jewish cast. There was a blandness in his man- 
ner which could not fail to impress any one who observed 



150 LIFE IN THE FATHERLANl 

him ; there was probably nota man who walked along the 
utiful Maximilian-street in Munich th 
re whom the most diffident school-girl would i. 
felt less hesitation in stoppin Ic the time 

A word -Mi l)r. Doellinger's home, the where this 

Vulcan forges his thunder-bolts. Like all Germ 
does not occupy a whole house, but only a 
do as he unquestionably is. His apartment 
and have the air of quiet comfort, it comfort can be 
(hie in the home of the celibate Here lyer- 

', embroidered by some admiring one, perhaps a nun ; 

there you see a pot of flow :ii I. 11. S. il 
it in gilt letters. 1 le lias twelve large rooms, i. I <»f 
which : upied by his immense library. With the 
eption of a few Englishmen, it is believed tl [lin- 
ger has th( 3t private library in Eu'l He has 
lions of his books marked the 
countries whence he has derived them. "From Spain" 

are 1,003 volumes; "from I the 

number are from thinking and writing Germ 
1 [e rails his books his « better half." and he spends nearly 
all his in-door hours before hi I writing 

body receh ordial, but not demonstrative 

just as in other days at the 

I \ ton. 

m visit the halls of the I'm. 

without being reminded of the philo 
lei tmed there in the meridian of h. 

I his students thufl 

tin- Augibui i • A emcinc I fhc Master in his 



MUNICH.— DOELLINGER AND SCHELLING. 1 5 I 

Lecture-room, about the year 1840 : " "Students thronged 
about the doors of the University long before the clock 
struck eleven, when the lecture was to commence. Old 
men from all parts of Europe were among them, equally 
eager to gain admission. There was a beadle at each 
door, and if any one tried to enter without a ticket of ad- 
mission he was bidden peremptorily to retire ; whether 
prince or peasant, there was no exception. 

" This was Schelling's express order. His fear was, that 
somebody would publish what he said in his lectures. He 
cautioned his audience in the strongest language against 
publishing him, as he wished to give the finishing touches of 
his system to the world with his own hand, lest the public 
might be deceived about his opinions. This careful watch- 
ing of his audience was almost a disease, which grew upon 
him after somebody once slipped into his lecture-room, and 
afterward published in a North German literary journal a 
fragment of one of his lectures on the ' Philosophy of 
Revelation.' After the unpardonable offense became 
known to Schelling, he convulsed his audience after the 
manner of a Jupiter Tonans, by railing in philosophic (?) 
madness at the indiscretion of the Tantalus, who, by the 
way, was a Hegelian, and said to be Hegel's own son. 
In the fifteen minutes that elapsed before the lecturer 
appeared, many languages could be heard at once. 
French, English, Modern Greek, Russian, Servian, Hun- 
garian, and other tongues were spoken in that one lect- 
ure-room, until the greater one appeared and silenced 
them all. 

" When Schelling entered the door there was profound 



152 UFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

silence. All the people arose from tl. the 

old man never ated themselve □ when 

he became seated The little gray-haired, blue 
■ 1 philosopher took ;i thorough survey of hi 

which .saw <mlv the m. i I the 

man, and thought only of what he W He 

was clad in brown coat and black pan I 

having been arranged with scrupulo 

after looking leisurely at his audi. . his 

snuff-box from his pocket and take a pinch, when he laid 

the box down on his desk for further use. lie then I 

OUt the large leaves on which his loose not. 

written. Hut soon the man was lost in the think 

notes were discarded, as useless scaffolding around the 

finished temple.' 1 



THE UNIVERSITIES OF EUROPE. 1 53 



CHAPTER X. 

THE UNIVERSITIES OF EUROPE. — DOELLINGER'S SURVEY. 

DOELLINGER was installed Rector of the Univer- 
sity of Munich in the year 1866. Conformably to 
custom, he delivered an oration on the assumption of the 
rectorate, taking as his theme : " Die Universitaten Sonst 
und Jetzt." He gave an outline of the history and pres- 
ent condition of the European Universities, which I here 
reproduce. Of course it could not be expected that 
Doellinger should do justice to the Protestant element 
in modern intellectual growth ; but, leaving this very 
natural defect out of the question, his survey is remark- 
able for conciseness, learning, and a profound apprecia- 
tion of the advanced state of learning in the present 
century. 

The first great school of any note, combining the main 
features of the modern university, was the medical 
college at Salerno, which enjoyed a wide reputation in the 
eleventh century. After the lapse of a century we hear 
of the flourishing law school of Bologna. In the thirteenth 
century, the law school at Padua was founded. But these 
institutions were surpassed in extent of studies and finan- 
cial support by the university at Naples, founded by the 
king of Sicily in 1224, for the education of young men. 
The laws of the country were so stringent that no young 
men were permitted to attend any seat of learning in other 



i;.} LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

part- of Euro] IS natural that this institu- 

tion should grow up devoid of that freedom and I 
peculiar to the real university in its use. 

The spirit of usurpation exhibited by the \ 

anterior as well as subsequent to this time, found 
sion in the studies of the Italian univ< 
branches that favored the temporal - ajnty of the 

papacy and humiliated the princes were taught with 
great assiduity. There was at that day no .scientific tend- 
ency whatever in Italy, though that was the :ountry 
which contained the great treasures of the 
haute made the complaint ti, 
the decretals of the DO] Roger B 
jurisprudence of the Italian- has, fol fort) /ears, I 
destroying the study of philosophy, natural scien 
theology, yea, even the Church and all the kin. 
This ecclesiastical or papal jurisprudence was the 
pursuit of the the • ldents ; and it 
in these times that the Roman priesthood assumed that 
character of political management and trickery which 

_anic shape in th< the Jes 

The Italian univeisit; visited hv immense mini 

tudents. In Roger 1?. icon's time — taking the 5 

•dure were in Boli 000, 

; whom was engaged in the stud, 
papal jurispru . 

1 iming north of the \ find th 

1 j, which was at first devoted 1 

but rd elevated to B l'ni\ ,,ut- 

set under the ] 1 under 



THE UNIVERSITIES OF EUROPE. 155 

the care of the French kings. But the popes still con- 
trolled the studies, as, indeed, they controlled every thing 
else in Europe. So they prohibited the study of jurispru- 
dence in Paris, fearing, no doubt, that at that distance from 
Rome there might be an admixture of independence or 
political heresy in the instruction. Theology was the 
principal study in Paris ; the students remained generally 
fifteen or sixteen years, until they were from thirty to forty 
years of age, before they were thought sufficiently indoc- 
trinated to become trusty priests. Nearly half of Paris 
was converted to the use of the students, who flocked 
thither in great multitudes from all parts of Europe, ex- 
cept Italy. A Venetian embassador, living at the end of 
the sixteenth century, states that there were then more 
students in the universities of Paris than in all the Italian 
universities together. He reports the number to have 
been 30,000, a statement which is sustained by an account 
of the General Procurator of the same period. 

It is remarkable that three centuries passed by after the 
founding of the first of the Italian universities before the 
thought seems to have occurred to any one in Germany to 
establish a similar institution. Even England had fol- 
lowed in the wake of Italy, and had endowed Cambridge 
and Oxford long before. But in Germany there was no 
school of any prominence, much less one bearing any re- 
semblance to the German university of to-day, until 1348, 
when the Emperor Charles IV. founded one at Prague 
after the model of the University of Paris. In this he 
does not seem to have been actuated by any very elevated 
motive, but from the mere accident that he had himself 



1UE IN THE FATHl D. 

student in Paris, and had I 

life. Y n the University of 1 1 by 

many thousands of students, the Germans takh 

national pride in it. 1 i I niversi: . . enna folio 

that of Prague, in 

But two more centuries elapsed before the German uni- 
ity attained that universal and liberal character wl 
it now ; es in a remarkable i 

not be the 

rmation, and to Protestantism in d. in their 

vating influi r education at this ti>: it he 

make the i ion, that in the 

turv a new and better era dawned upon the German unt- 
itles. This was the time when the llumai 
Philologians, first brought tl 

man literature home to the German mind, ami wh. 
• ; was in its death-agony. 
The German universities increased rapidly, though i 

and then one was COmpelli >wn with tl 

of a patron prince, or the decline of a I h it 

had been established ti in. Hut wl the R< 

mat; lied a firm footing, new ui 

imple, Marbui . . 1 . 1 lelm- 

lt, and Altdorf. The Thirt) Yt ira War, which 
all Germai 

! had but little 

tin- Vet tl line in 

and it in the uni 

John Valentine \ ' 



THE UNIVERSITIES OF EUROPE. 1 57 

profane than our religion ; nothing more fatal than our 
medicine ; nothing more unjust than our justice." 

As far clown as the end of the seventeenth century- 
Latin was the only language in which lectures were deliv- 
ered. Any man who ventured to use the language of the 
people was regarded vulgar. But men of any good degree 
of etymological and rhetorical acuteness could see that 
the German tongue was eminently adapted to the purposes 
of higher education. Leibnitz had long ago said that 
" the German was the best language in existence for 
the purposes of philosophical and scientific technology." 
Thomasius, of Halle, and Buddaeus, of Jena, made a des- 
perate effort to introduce the German language into the 
universities. They offended all the professed advocates of 
good-breeding and culture by lecturing in German, in spite 
of opposition. The result was, they carried their point. 
From their day down to the present, the German student 
has heard the professor lecture in his own vernacular. 

From 1690 to 1730 Halle occupied the first rank among 
the German universities. Each of its faculties possessed 
men who were representatives of the varied progress of 
their times. In one respect, however, it was surpassed 
by Gcittingen — we mean in the study of history. The 
eighteenth century closed and the nineteenth began amid 
as violent convulsions as have ever occurred in Europe. 
At this time of general disruption a number of the uni- 
versities — some of which had previously enjoyed a good 
share of favor — ceased to exist. We may reckon among 
the unfortunate number those of Helmstaedt, Rinteln, 
Frankfort-on-the-Oder, Duisburg, Wittenberg, Erfurt, 



LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

Paderborn, 
lingen, and Sal/Inn-. 
The foundation of the University of Berlin, in 1810, 
Prussia's offering t<» the new period of the 1 
<>t' humanity in art and science. This institution was the 
first university established in Germany that did not form- 
ally embrace in its programme some distinct « 
confession. For this reason there has alw een the 

liberty -ranted to the theological pi from 

the beginning down to the present time. The Univei 
of Berlin very soon rose to high honor. In 1815 — only 
five years after its inundation, and when Germany 
Europe were settling their long i 
at Waterloo — Berlin had in all fifty-six pr< 
large a number of students as many of the oldest institu- 
tions in Europe. In [860 there w < hundi 

seventy-three prol and subordinate lei' An 

far back as [835 there were two thousand students 
attendance. 

Turning to the university we find I 

there is no real bond of unity conn< ting 
there is in Germany. Each facult) 
ency— or rather, a college working 01; unt, 

instead of being an organic part of a Ul 

■ univei 
established by Francis I., and in 
irships. 
Dr. Docllingcr disclaims for tin I sh univ< 
well French, any title l 

1 1.- holds thai th< their 



THE UNIVERSITIES OF EUROPE. 1 59 

German confreres, "do not place themselves in the mid- 
. die of a subject," but take their position on one side of it, 
and lecture in such a way as " to produce a satisfactory 
effect on a mixed audience." 

The Scotch universities are of a more liberal cast than 
those of Cambridge and Oxford. Still, even here, learn- 
ing has declined of late. Blackie makes the broad asser- 
tion " that Scotland, at the present moment, is in no sense 
of the word a learned country ; especially in our universi- 
ties learning is at the lowest possible ebb." " The Ameri- 
can universities," says Dr. Doellinger, " are of a low grade, 
occupying a midway position between the German gymna- 
sia and the philosophical faculty of a German university." 

In Spain there is no institution that is worthy of the 
name of university. For a century her best institutions 
of learning have been deserted, the buildings have been 
lying in ruins, and the Spanish young men who desired an 
education have resorted to Paris or Germany. Russia has 
seven universities, all after the German model. The Uni- 
versity of Odessa was founded in 1865. Switzerland, 
small as she is, boasts three universities — that of Basle 
being the largest and strongest. Holland has also three 
universities, though they are not supported as they should 
be by the Government. Belgium has four universities, 
which bear the twofold character of the French and Ger- 
man systems of higher education. Denmark, with its two 
universities, has lately enjoyed the advantages of more 
than an ordinary class of scholarly divines. We need 
only refer to Miinter, Guntvig, and Martensen. The two 
Swedish universities of Upsala and Lund are not equal 



i6o LIFE IN THE FA Til: 

■ 

. the 

Docllinger 1 
European univ< 

of tl rmany, and then Lndi 

ity of | 
ciatii 

;al hun. 
... A- far as t ; .: 
Htei " may 1 

VVc must make 
iality for his own • 
that it 
the achievements of the Germans I 
sph< ' Hadstonc, tl 

iu«. ruin- with Ruber's " 1 
• 

■ ■ 
k,and far letter than all which the ! 
had wril 

lish law, the h 

II tory. H 



THE UNIVERSITIES OF EUROPE. l6l 

This historical sense has crystallized itself in four Ger- 
mans, whose services to mankind have been, and will 
hereafter be, of inestimable value. The first of these is 
Niebuhr, who is the founder of a new mode of historical 
writing, and of a race for the first time capable of reading 
history aright. He combined the imagination of a true 
poet with patient and profound research, and was the first 
to lift the vail which Livy had drawn over Roman history, 
and which had been undisturbed from the Roman period 
clown to Niebuhr's day. The second in the quartet is 
Alexander von Humboldt, who knew no part of the world 
except as a member of the great organism — the universal 
cosmos. His groupings of the results of scientific investi- 
gation, and his combinations of them with the great truths 
of universal history, have thrown all similar efforts into 
the shade. Ritter, the third in this honor-group, was the 
creator of the science of the earth. Instead of confining 
his attention to any particular country or geographical 
characteristic, he combined geography, ethnography, and 
history into one mighty force, and showed its varied in- 
fluence on individual man, and on nations and their his- 
tory. Jacob Grimm completes the number of these rarely- 
endowed men. He, more than all others, has penetrated 
the depths of the German language, and has shown its 
growth through custom, legend, myth, and law. And this 
unwearied work of love for Grimm's own tongue is but 
the pioneer of labors that are to be expended upon all the 
great languages of man. As a peerless example of reduc- 
ing language to law, and of reading its mysterious philoso- 
phy, Grimm is scarcely inferior to Niebuhr, Humboldt, or 



162 LIFE IN THE FATHERLA 

Ritter, in the universal ch 

ntative of the histori< rmany. 

Taking leave of Doellinger, I derive from the Bndj 
of the Italian Minister of Public Instruction tl unt 

of the present state of the universities of that kingdom 

Italy lias no less than twenty universities, fifteen of 
which are entirely supported by th< , and thro 

the remaining five receive a fixed annual subs .. The 
number of students in attendance at the uni\ 
that are supported solely by the S 
Bologna, . igliari, ; G ;o6; 

ma. 82 ; Modena, N - I ■ bia. I.; 

Palermo, 17; : Parma 
sari, 63; Sienna, 91 ; Turin. 1,144. The five free univi 

are . Camerimo, Ferrara, Macei 

bino ; and the amount given by the S r their - 

ether with that given to the fifteen unh 
above, is. in round numb I 0,000 (j icul- 

l in the fifteen universiti lusively dependent on 

the State, and entitled to grant d . numb, 

which are divided as follows :S I 

at present suspended); i 5 I .aw ; i 5 Medicine, 13 Mathe- 
matics and Physics; 10 rure and Philo Al 
the six university • ' 
P 1. and Turin, instruction is imparted by all tin 
fa< ulties . at Bologna, l 

Pavta, it is given by onlj md in tl 

universities 1 Model I 
th 

»m this sh nng.il the ui 



THE I 'XI VERS I TIES OE E UROPE. 1 63 

ties are dwarfs, and that the nation is suffering seriously 
from the want of imparting higher instruction in fewer 
but more favored centers. The number of the -Italian 
universities is out of all proportion to that in other coun- 
tries where education is far more general. The kingdom 
of Italy, for instance, with a population of twenty-four mill- 
ions, has no less than sixty-one faculties ; while France, 
which has half again as many inhabitants, has but 
fifty-three faculties. Austria has thirty-four million in- 
habitants, and yet has only seven universities. Russia 
has eight, Prussia ten, and all Germany, with double the 
population of the kingdom of Italy, twenty-six. Belgium 
has four universities and Switzerland three ; in Scotland 
there are four universities, while England furnishes the 
same number to a population six or seven times greater 
than Scotland. Spain has ten universities (reduced from 
thirteen in 1845) ; and Holland, with a population of three 
and a half millions, has three. 

The expense to the Italian Government of supporting 
this undue number of universities is much greater than 
would be the case if they were reduced. But a still greater 
evil would be remedied by supplying a few educational 
centers with an adequate staff of capable professors ; for 
each university must, of course, provide teachers for 
every branch included in the lists of faculties. " Men of 
talent," says the Budget, " naturally prefer a wider sphere 
of action, and hence throng to the large university towns, 
leaving the smaller ones to do as well as they can with 
second-rate professors ; while men of European reputa- 
tion in the great seats of learning are, by reason of this 



[4 | LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

ntralization, debarred from exci the 

i n fl U( mich Legitimately belongs to them, and b 

to lecture, if not to empty, at least t< utily filk 

halls." 

A comparison between the number of matriculated 

Students in Italy and elsewhere places in a still 

light the absurdity <>f the present arrangement Durii 

the mical year of I 1 all th< university 

presented a total of ;/-<>i students, I 15.00° »" 

Fn 6,490 in Au ven universitit 1 1 in 

Spain, 7,500 in Prussia, and about 20,000 f«.r the wh 

•mprisi: 

sit:, • Hie live live univ. in Ita". 

imething over joo students, raising the whole nun, 
students to nearly s.ooo. 

The most richly endowed and important univ. 
t p, 1 Naples, Padua, Palermo, Pa 

Turin, with 1 rhe eight esl 

the ^e thos 

Sienna, ia, Messina, Cagliari, and 5 

ot' tin- first Class constitute an annual chi 

00, leaving little more than js.wcx 
remaining five N . with an annual endowi 

lt the head ..f the list, and S 

Btudent at th< 

aW) r, that the numb toe 

un 



ATTENDING THE UNIVERSITIES. 1 65 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE UNIVERSITIES. A WORD ON ATTENDING THEM. 

DURING the last few years there has been a great 
increase in the attendance of Americans at the Ger- 
man universities. In many instances men in middle life 
have gone to Europe for this purpose, -and have spent 
several semesters at more than one university. Some of 
those men had families, and had the good sense to take 
them along, thus giving them all the advantages of foreign 
residence and travel. It would be difficult to enumerate 
the various measures adopted by Americans after reaching 
Germany in order to make their stay at a university ad- 
vantageous and pleasant. That disappointment has some- 
times been the result may be occasionally due to misman- 
agement, but we believe it is more frequently owing to a 
misconception, before going, of some of the more impor- 
tant practical features of the case. 

The most natural questions asked by an American who 
contemplates a course of study in a German university 
are these, or similar ones : — What is the expense ? Can 
one depend on earning sufficient money abroad to help 
him through a university ? How much German is it 
necessary to know in order to hear the lectures to advan- 
tage ? Which is the best university ? How long is it 
necessary to stay ? Should one go directly to a univer- 



LIFE IN T) WD. 

sity, preliminarily, in s 

■ 1 for I 
question is sted by th< nurabci 

r> Americans have b to D ki 

and other pla >me month 

; afterward proceedinf I 
As to cxi - • a university, I ition wl 

outlay of the 
than from two to three hundred thai* the 

tures, board, fuel, room-rent : »- 

cidentals I - »me Ann 

ending as low a sum, but the 
this figure. Living in some southern uni 
—Till en, for instan 
north. Still, sometimes chea] 
found in the north, and even in Berlin. 

In fena 
well-furnished, with fii 
,1 other fees, for thirty th 
om and a less luxuriant I 
need be | nteen y 

.1 furnished "sky pa 
• 1. five th month 1 1 

the ' H imburg ' 

■ 

1 

.i < i 



ATTENDING THE UNIVERSITIES. 1 67 

If he wish to keep up his American luxuriance, he will 
have to pay for it there as well as at home. 

For attendance at the lectures the expenses are about 
the same in all the universities. The prices range from 
three thalers to ten, according to the frequency of the lec- 
ture. At Jena, for six lectures a week on chemistry and 
physics, for the term of five months, the cost is ten thalers. 
For theology, philosophy, mineralogy, history, and a large 
class of other studies, one pays five thalers each per term. 
For the use of the chemical laboratory the expense is 
thirty thalers the term. No text-books are regarded nec- 
essary, but it is advisable to have some good one at hand 
for every course of lectures, to aid in filling out notes at 
leisure. 

Can money be made at a university town ? Not much, 
at least as a rule. The American who proposes to attend 
a German university had better bring with him enough, 
or the promise of it, to meet all his expenses. To give 
English lessons, or any other, would occupy a great 
amount of valuable time, and bring in return but a meager 
remuneration at best. Moreover, every town of any size 
in Germany swarms with people whose business it is to 
give English lessons, and they will do it for a much less 
cost than an American could think of accepting. A young 
American theological student, who spent nearly a year at 
Halle, obtained, by a mere accident, what seemed at first 
a very advantageous position as an English teacher to a 
Polish nobleman, but he gave it up after a while, because, 
as he said, it took too much of his time, leaving him 
scarcely any leisure, and only paying moderately. If a 



[68 ///•"/•: IN THE FA THERJL \ND. 

young man is ever justified in borrowing money f«»r 
improvement, it is one who is bent on excelling in his 
profession. His mind can generally h tly enriched 

Lttending a German university for a while ; and if i 
a wealthy man has such a son, nephew, or friend, he shi 
be thankful for the privilege of placing at his al a 

.sum sufficient for him to gratify his thirst for truth 

On arriving in Germany the most 
if one docs not design to travel, to go directly to the place 
where he- proposes to attend a university, and !• 

to hear lectures, even if he do not understand 
word in tea The discipline is of itself a valuable German 
n. Private instruction can be taken meanwhile, not 
only in German, but in Sanscrit. Hebrew, or any other 
language, dead or modern, one desii study. 

more than three lectures can be heard a 

B dl other German univei in the 

tent of its facilitu - I ibingen is just wd per- 

haps better, in philology, GSttingen in jurisprudo 
Halle in theology, Heidelberg in pi '• enna in 

medicin I nn has some fresh young th< 1 blood. 

But Berlin unquestionably presents the widest 
Btudy, and. besides, that city furnishes mi 
vantages for improvement 1 The 

American, in selecting a university, h id be 

ml to jud l not I 

the department in wh: h he is in! 

no univ. tntinues uniforml 

l 
that m<1 J u 



ATTENDING THE UNIVERSITIES. 169 

never been in Church history what it was in Neander's 
day, nor Gottingen in law what it was in Sevigny's day, 
nor will Munich soon find a real successor to Liebig. If 
one wishes to stay two years abroad, the first one can be 
well spent in some other university and the last in Berlin. 
If he has but one year, he will do best to go directly to 
Berlin ; but if he wish to learn German he should keep 
clear of Americans and English. Many Americans divide 
their two years between three universities, spending the 
latter half of their time in Berlin. And they do not regret 
this course, for the universities form a sort of republican 
confederation, and a man can begin in one just where he 
left off in another. 

If an American wish to travel and attend a university 
besides, he will do well to travel after he has finished his 
studies, when he can have the advantage of a knowledge 
of the languages he may have studied in the meantime. 
The German student, when he travels, does not spend an 
average of more than three thalers a day ; but not many 
Americans stop there. Still, one American I knew, who 
was abroad fourteen months, said to me that for his pas- 
sage from New York and back again, for eight months, at 
a university, guide-books, clothing, and traveling through 
Germany, Italy, Switzerland, France, Holland, Belgium, 
England, and Scotland, he paid eleven hundred dollars in 
gold. But while one American can get along in this style, 
twenty spend three times the amount. There is such a 
thing as "doing" Europe entirely too cheaply. 

The more German one knows before leaving home the 
better it is for him, for he will need proportionately less 



\yo /.//A IN THE FATHERLAND. 

rime before understanding the lectures rhe student 
would d<> well to bring with him all his lex; 
text-books, and but few 1>< >«»ks besid< £ >me knowh 
of the character of the German universiti< 
indispensable before coming. The best informal 
sible t" the American is contained in I>r. i 
linson's articles on the subject in the " Bibli 
tory," ( 1 831-1834,) in later numbers of the " Biblioth 
Sacra;" Schafl 'Germany — its Universities, Tl 
and Religion;" Matthew Arnold's ** Hij 
Universities of Germany ;" and I - in the 

North of Germany." Howitt's "Student Life in 

many good things. Mayhew's reflections, in 
bock on Germany, are very one-sided, and not worth; 
the author of " London Labor ami the 1 

The academic year at the uni\ »ut the 

middle of October, and cl »ut the middle 

There are 1 i at Chi and Whil 

The German Prof< : «dly 

in the extreme, ever ready t" iod ad\ . 

make the welcome more cordial 

: introduction. In the institution 
such letters an ty, but not in Germai 

true love "t knowledge hides a multitude ..1 sins 

lately said t.. an American .student, who him 

ailing with. .ut presenting 
he w »ne An omc 

without on 

: 

I them an uni. 



ATTENDING THE UNIVERSITIES. Ijl 

On arriving at the university town, the first thing to be 
done is the finding of a proper boarding-place. This will 
need care, and hence it is well to retain lodgings in a 
hotel until satisfactory apartments are secured elsewhere. 
A student usually hires two rooms, a study and a bed- 
chamber. These are likely to be quite small. They are 
furnished by the landlord, who requires monthly payment 
for rent and service. He furnishes his boarders with the 
morning meal — coffee and biscuit, served in each room, 
when its occupant pulls his bell. The dinner and tea are 
usually taken at a restaurant or hotel. But the landlord 
holds himself ready to furnish both these meals, if ordered 
by his guests. An early opportunity should be seized to 
report at the police head-quarters one's presence in a uni- 
versity town, and the purpose of residence. 

All German students are expected to bring with them 
certificates of passage through the gymnasium, and fitness 
in attainment to attend the university. No examination 
is made. That is supposed to have occurred, and the sat- 
isfactory proof to be in the applicant's pocket. The 
American, however, need not bring any thing in testimony 
of scholarship. His traditions and usages are so different 
that the good Germans regard him as a law to himself. 
On the given day, at the commencement of the semester, 
he should matriculate. He need not designate his lectur- 
ers at first, unless he has already determined upon them. 
The universities vary in expense and usage. Expenses 
in the south are much lower than in the north. " At 
Tubingen," so writes Professor C. C. Bragdon, " the ma- 
triculation fee is $4 ; incidentals, fifty cents. For a lect- 
8* 



i 7 2 LIFE IN THE 1 . 1 THERJL \ND. 

. oming two or three times per week, the fee is %\ io 
for the semestk , Ocl ; 

that five or six tinie> per Week, $2 tO J In the 

medical department the rates are higher. Clinical 

. with practice in the hospital and about town, from 
me time as above Al 
in progress for one or two weeks, the profi 
around a paper which the number of lectures week- 

ly and their price. All sign wh( take the 

course, and b) D< ember ist the beadle must I 
You may attend lectui r after . 

- between the pi and The 

her enters the room ten minul the bell 

struck the hour, b a< ^ wnCM 

the time is up all rise as h< and passes out i 

will be sin prised at the extensive quotati 
ors of i - and books bearing upoi 

This gives an idea of the amount 

the right stamp must \ 

given "ii Sundays, not only on theology, but a 

Other secular scieiuc 



III. 



BOOKS-WRITING, MAKING, AND 
SELLING. 



Illi- morttll vivnnt : M<- mti'il Itqtinnttir. 



Still .•>'■ 

y..r to />..%.• [drntj 



Our It,' than OUT Infa 



In Hi" comer of < 



LITERAR Y PROD UC TI VENESS. 1 7$ 



CHAPTER I. 

LITERARY PRODUCTIVENESS. PECULIARITIES. 

n^HE increase of books in Germany is a permanent 
-A- marvel to every foreigner. Previously to 1814 the 
annual issue was only about two thousand volumes, but 
now it exceeds ten thousand, and each year shows an ad- 
vance on its predecessor. The stages of growth down to 
1834 were as follows : In 18 14 there were published 2529 
works; in 1816,3197; in 1822,4288; in 1827, 5108; in 
1830,5926; in 1831, 5508; in 1832, 6122; in 1833, 5653; 
in 1834, 6074, Menzel said, many a year ago, that "in 
Germany alone, according to a moderate calculation, ten 
millions of volumes are annually printed. As the cata- 
logue of every Leipzig half-yearly book contains the names 
of more than a thousand German authors, we may com- 
pute that at the present moment there are living in Ger- 
many about fifty thousand men who have written one or 
more books. Should that number increase at the same 
rate that it has hitherto done, the time will soon come 
when a catalogue of ancient and modern German authors 
will contain more names than there are living readers." 
A wonderful combination of qualities is needed for this 
great annual supply of literature from the German press. 
Patience ! I have never seen such patience as that of the 
real German author. While his volume is in hand it be- 
comes to him his planet, his home. Nothing that can 



/.///■ IN THE FATHERLAND. 

enrich it escapes him. H k with all the 

fondl nal attachment. It is alu the 

youngest member of his household, and must he tre 
with nsideration b) 1 man 

author never lets his r* ty. Hence it is found 

a rule, that the last pa| .til the provokii 

and deliberation <»f the first. There is more dii 
and real point ; hut of impetuosity hi-- I 
guilty. The way in which he consults I 
l)i»,iks is a marvel to us unresting A I 

him go int.. a library immediately after sipping his 
morning cup ol pend the entir< 

ining authorities with as much ind qui. the 

shadow of the sun never changed on the dial. N 
believe it docs <>n his. Three hundred thousand \ 
in sight at once never bewilder hi 

walked a steamer's bridge with m< - he 

looked out upon the v. waters, or ki 

to do. than do«.s the German author as he sits an 

amid the world of 1 ks in the lil Munich. Berlin, 

or St. Petersburg. II ntent to upturn n 

k for a single needle. Meander's spei an entire 

day on top of his hook-case, feasting on tl. 

Fathers," hut in delightful ignorance ^i any p 

! setting his sister II U hen more than ha 
• his u : 
of his fellow t ountT) men wl. 

more til the matter thai ante 

the dai than an 

Up) in a whole <■ h. 



LITERARY PRODUCTIVENESS. 1 77 

The more one becomes acquainted with the habits of 
the German 'author the more decided becomes the convic- 
tion of his real and imperturbable honesty. He knows his 
public, and that it will put up with no nonsense from him ; 
and, what is better, he knows himself, and that he would 
not be able, for a disturbed conscience, to calmly pull up 
his smoke through his cherry-stem or face his publisher 
any day if he had failed to put into his manuscript the 
best stuff that his brain and the respectable libraries 
could furnish. No slovenliness here. Where have I not 
met the German author, pencil in hand, trying to get the 
whole truth into his pages ? Delving day after day in the 
oldest and richest libraries of Germany ; sitting on broken 
columns in the Palace of the Caesars in Rome trying to 
decipher the inscriptions of the time of Horace ; working 
at the Cufic letters on the Tayloon Mosque, in Cairo ; 
luxuriating, at Karnak and Philas, in his study of the plans 
of the marvelous temples ; counting the steps of Mars' 
Hill, cut out of solid rock, up which the Areopagites and 
the great teacher, Paul, ascended; jumping from one 
housetop to another of Damascus, to note in his own book 
the celebrated inscription to the triumph of Christianity 
which even Moslem hate has not dared to erase or deface ; 
sitting beside Virgil's grave at Naples, testing the verdict 
of the sw T eet tradition — and all to tell dear Germany some- 
thing it never knew or never knew so well. 

But what I admire most in German authors is their un- 
compromising pluck. Talk about Metz, Strasbourg, and 
Sedan ! Never did Uhlan brave more than do these quiet 
workers with the quill — I mean the real goose qtrill ; for 



178 LIFE IX THE FATHERLAND. 

you may as well try 10 make the German book-writer think 
that smoking is an impediment to authorship*as that any 

respectable bonk can be, or ought to be, written with pen 
of steel <>r gold. Of course, there are those who b 
adopted these innovations; but they are mostly of the 
younger class, mere parvenus, as yet, in the charmed circle. 
It I should be allowed to wake up from my resting-place 
five hundred years from this hot July morning, and 
over the shoulder of one of the ten Herren I': 

history in Berlin University, as he prepares his manus 

on the German Conquest of France, away back in 1 

and [871, and writes a letter to his Leipzig publisher, I 
should likely find him writing with his ink-speckled quill, 
and, instead of using note-paper and envelope for his 
letter, employing a great sheet of blue paper, one K 

which, after the manner ol his am the pui | 

of an envelope, which must be sealed with the bothersome 
red wax and .stamped with the old family seaL 

Ybur German author is never intimidated by the n. 
nitude of his subject. lie has his idea, and you 
well tell him that father Rhine OUght t<> 'the 

French as to say any thing that could tend to diminish his 
confidence in his project He knows what his th< 
and he thinks it is nobody's business but his and his 

family's. 1 >■> nol make any reflection on his t 

wisli 1 1 . continue on friendly terms 

brilliant articles, " in the Augsburg •• Al 

meine Zeitung," on " 1 he Man in the M< 

doubt the) arealread) matured into a duodecimo I should 

not be st. u lied to he.u ..( BOmC one writing on tin " \\ .-man 



LI TERAR Y PROD UC TI V EN ESS. 1 79 

in the Moon." But such odd and plucky subjects stare 
you in the face in any German bookstore. The German 
will venture on any theme. No Monte Rosa or Matter- 
horn dispirits him ! He goes diligently to working up a 
volume on any science, art, people — dead, living, to be, or 
not to be — arming himself with a very arsenal of authori- 
ties, sparing neither sweat nor scanty purse, plodding on 
with the grand certainty of fate toward the elaboration of 
such a thought as would take two generations of authors 
with us to summon confidence enough to venture a volume 
upon. He knows he has to face a world of critics, men of 
every type of savage nature, who furnish the horns, hoofs, 
and teeth for the scores of critical serials, and hold them- 
selves ready to masticate any new comer into the domain 
of authorship. But do not waste your sympathy on him ; 
for not a whit does he care — no more than did old Sam. 
Johnson for the carpers at his dictionary. He does not 
take the time to read the critiques on him. All he knows 
is what the frau or his friends have a mind to reveal. He 
is too busy thinking about his next volume. This sublime 
indifference to the oracular critics is worthy any body's ad- 
miration. If it depended on him, the whole set would be 
hanged as high as Haman — that is, if he could appropriate 
to those gentry time enough to decide on their destiny. 

The German author ventures out early, and the deeper 
his soundings the better. Tholuck's maiden effort was in 
Latin, and on Sufism — or, as it read in the bibliographies, 
" Sufismus sive Theosophia Persarum pantheistica quam e 
MSS. bibliotheca Regise Berolinensis, Persicis, Arabicis, 
Turcicis, emit et illustravit." And all this from a con- 



I So LIFE IN THE FATHERLANi 

sumptive stripling of twenty-two! Th 

the work nevei i edition. h^-n 

Tholuck has grown into m lest and simp! 

a preference for his own tongue When I see tl 

ipts at authorship in Germany, I am reminded of the 
f a child to w.ilk. He tumbles down now 
then, and gets bruises numberless; but is 
his feet again, and in due time can walk and run with 
others. The German author tries his 1- for he 

knows that he must fall about SO often anyhow, whether 
he b on or late. By and by he wrings his i 

tion from the critics, and during the n his life 

CUpies a position of honor in the guild. II 
worthy member, and is pushing out with confidence his 

tly octavo every two years, with brochures and duo 
imos to give variety to the interval his Amei 

brother has blocked out his first undertaking ' 'her. 

three hund: published at the : 

fortnight 

Tlu-n he keeps at hi^ oar with astonishing pertinacity. 
I the working with his pen up into th< 
Humboldt until squarely up to ninety, indicat rule 

Von Raumer and Boeckh and Rank 
of the freshnes nd confiden 

to tl rhey do not their d 

happen what will. A more beautiful 
and than 

. :th wh 

infirm in 
nished work I ind, h^ 



LITERAR Y PROD UCTIVENESS. 1 8 1 

Hamilton, who died with a dozen untouched volumes in 
his head, tell you what book they are next going to begin, 
what old one they are pledged to enlarge into a new 
edition, what literary journey they are projecting for the 
inspection of libraries or the examination of localities. 
Like Schleiermacher, they declare eternal hostility to old 
age. And when they die, it is in just the right place, 
amid plans, some nearly completed, some perhaps just 
begun. They never commit the mistake of many a sane 
and capable man with us, no matter about his years, of 
waiting for death to come. They work, and suffer death 
to take his own time. And who would question their 
wisdom ? 



i.j j j. rx in \xd. 



CHAP! l.k II. 

in*. 

* ^ plicable than the 
1 low do th lira wril 

ment d<> th< 

their Amei 
luce but a tith it number ? I 

. in many w irticulai 

i then, 
his but ha n up in 

truth is, th< I i 

much don< 
n the volume 
■ 
done 

■ 

of tl 1 

■ 

■ • 



SECRETS OF GERMAN AUTHORSHIP. 1 83 

The German knows, as no one else, how to subsidize 
others into his service, thereby saving a vast amount of 
time and purely mechanical labor. Almost invariably he 
has an amanuensis, and frequently more than one, to 
whom he dictates, or gives in pretty full outline what he 
proposes to embalm in print. Bunsen — who, despite his 
long residence in England and identification with English 
life, never forgot his German method of authorship — used 
to have half-a-dozen secretaries at work for him. All he 
did was to give them the general directions, and they thus 
multiplied his years. Moreover, he had scholars at work 
for him who lived in various parts of the country. He 
told them what points he wanted to fortify, what theses 
they must elaborate ; and they did it gladly — for, poor, 
half-starved fellows, they knew that Bunsen could pay them 
well for their toil. Many of the more solid works in Ger- 
man literature are produced by the professors in the uni- 
versities. These men, almost to a unit, have the services 
of a promising student (or two) of literary taste, who spends 
his spare hours in searching up authorities, conducting 
correspondence, getting the master's own hieroglyphics 
into shape for the printer, and examining libraries far and 
near for information to pack into the volume in hand. 
While the real author is responsible for every word that 
goes out under his own name, and can justly claim the 
parentage of the whole idea, and plan, and scope of the 
work, he is spared much of the drudgery incident to all 
book-making which is not the immediate fruit of imagi- 
nation. Where history is to be ransacked, facts to be 
grouped, and matters of pure detail to be gleaned from 



/.// / THE! 

:han 
the until • rhe real writer is | 

the model, and yet never himself uses th< the 

but tuk. 
ular part of th< 

from exhaustion. 1 
plained, that while in sculpture all the m< 
might he turned over to ot 

!. the real art: I ':>ut hii: 

touch his can\ 
The influei 

m thes 
menl I ierman authorship is 
culation. Tholuck ha 
cal students workii him ilnrii 

Hall than 

his own family. 1 i 
ti<>n to them ; at other tim< 
■ 

i 
them I 
prep 

all musl 

hum': 

C . F. H 

i aulli 



SECRETS OF GERMAN AUTHORSHIP. 185 

his appointment to a full professorship in Bonn University- 
was ample proof that he belonged in the front rank of the 
younger group of evangelical theologians. But that same 
Held did all that could be done by any other than the 
real author, on Tholuck's " Akademisches Leben des sie- 
benzehnten Jahrhunderts." The work was made up 
largely of facts which could be gathered only from the 
university records of the period in question, and Held 
corresponded with all the librarians of the German and 
extra-German universities, secured copies of protocols, 
and put the matter in order. The brain that guided him 
did little more than suggest the drift; and consummate the 
generalizations. Jacobi, the author of a Church History* 
and now Professor of Church History in Halle, was trained 
in the same way by Neander, who, indeed, lived to see the 
young man well started, and wrote a commendatory intro- 
duction to his first attempt at authorship. Another of 
Neander's young helpers was the present highest Ger- 
man authority on ecclesiastical art — Professor Piper, of 
Berlin, really the creator of the science of monumental 
theology. 

Further, the German author takes care to have social 
refreshment. Without this he would soon fall amid his 
gigantic literary plans. He cultivates clubbable qualities, 
and has his circle of friends, with whom he spends his 
evenings and the afternoons of festive days. He seldom 
works with his pen at night, and generally not after din- 
ner. He crowds his labors into the morning hours, and 
where he leaves any thing for the afternoon, it is light 
matter — the trimming up of the grand trunk he had felled 



LIFE IN THE FATHERLANl 

omparing authorities, and such 
i his labor he can do without v. 
r-dinner smoke But f<»r dictati arnright 

authorship, he commonly tak- n ; and ur 

must be your demand if y< mhimthen. 

He often has a placard on his it this time, 

all ti on his time n< I nter unless their busi- 

. important, and they arc willing to 
1 lis rule is. to spend all his 
it li his family <>r literary He 

grand diner-out; knows how to ) two h 

table, and four or six hours in di 
it. lie plays all manner with his child! 

and what not i«>r then. the 

ling-room, and drops r the " \ 

schrif t ; " make ion with his wd child 

i neighboring village, and wakes up i 
fifty brand-new 
through his volume, halt playin 

and when h< 

1 a jounu him 

ti, it\. nor does he shiver I the 

nil; ,: 

high, his brain 

ful- 
fill his publi 

He 



SECRETS OF GERMAN AUTHORSHIP. 187 

his friends as so much lost time. The result was that he 
lost flesh, spirits, and the indispensable pluck for new 
undertakings. The German, on the other hand, knows 
the high science of compressing as much work as possible 
into his mornings, and as much play as possible into his 
afternoons and evenings. 

The German author, moreover, owes a large degree of 
his productiveness to his simple diet and regular hours for 
sleep and rising. He rises early, and never touches any 
work until he has taken a cup of coffee and a biscuit. He 
never puts his brain and eyes into harness, and under spur 
and whip, without a little food to start with. At ten he 
takes a light lunch, such as a sandwich of bread and 
cheese, and goes to work again, and sticks to it until 
about one o'clock. Then it is all over for that day. He 
has performed an immense amount of literary work. Six 
solid hours, and not one minute lost in painful digestion 
of ham and eggs, beefsteak, hot rolls, and blankety buck- 
wheat cakes. As for hot bread, he never saw any, in all 
probability ; for all the bread comes from the baker's, and 
is served cold twice a day. If by any oversight he should 
eat a couple of steaming soda-biscuits, it would cost him 
a whole day's work ; for he never could bring himself to 
the belief that he has the capacity to digest hot bread. 
He would moan and smoke, and declare, in spite of the 
papers, that the French are marching straight for Berlin. 
The dinner is plain but plentiful ; the supper is light, with 
black bread as the staple. With the fiber and strength 
from one day's food he does the work of the next ; hence 

digestion gives him no trouble or thought. He no more 




LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

thinks ol his stomach than of Barl 

course, he smokes leal; but even this. I b 

noticed, he pushes off largely int<» the play-hours of the 

afterna 

The German author, finally, 
having his materials at hand for preparii work. I 

Fatherland is the paradise of great libi The m 

can have on his desk the Volume which, of all Otl 

IS in a- -hort a time as it requin 

Scribner or Westermann \ ler which will require five 

mortal weeks at least to have tilled. 

immense librari >wth of centuries, whi 

can consult at will. Wh librarj 

another, close at hand. does. An Anieri 

sometim a compelle 

jult lil to which the • 

few blocks from his hou l 

ili.st m the nr. i 

from authorship in his favorite fields. Mr. M 
found, throughout his hi raphy, that he could L 

with hut little :i t«» him-, 

awav from the d\kes and vellum-bountl 
Mi ; tt t.-lls ns that only through I 

the Spanish Government, and the kin 
i . is enabled 

taint) the relations of th 

man, 1 1 h, and I 

that tl ; 

the 



SECRETS OF GERMAN AUTHORSHIP. 



189 



What does America not owe to Washington Irving's 
residence in Spain, Hawthorne's consulate in Liverpool, 
Mr. Thayer's stay in Vienna and Trieste, and Mr. Per- 
kins' residence in Florence ? One needs personal con- 
tact with the very localities that are embraced within the 
scope of his undertaking. Schiller, it must be confessed, 
could write his " William Tell " without ever seeing any 
of the glories of Lake Lucerne ; but then his imagination 
was unrivaled. Moreover, he had all the advantage, as 
Mr. Lewes tells us^ of the notes of Goethe, who lazed 
away many an ambrosial hour within the shadows of the 
Righi and Mount Pilate. 

To give an idea of the wealth of literature at the dis- 
posal of the author in Germany we present a 



t TABLE OF CHIEF GERMAN LIBRARIES. 

Volumes. Manuscripts. 

Royal Library of Munich 800,000 22,000 

" " Berlin 600,000 14,000 

Imperial Library of Vienna 400,000 16,000 

Royal Library of Dresden 300,000 2,800 

Stuttgart 300,000 3,600 

Ducal Library of Darmstadt 200,000 3,000 

Wolfenbuttel 200,000 6,000 

Gotha 160,000 2,000 

Weimar 143,000 2,000 

University Library of Gottingen 350,000 5 ; ooo 

Breslau 300,000 2,500 

Tubingen 200,000 2,000 

Leipzig 170,000 1,500 

Heidelberg 150,000 847 

Erlangen. 120,000 1,000 

Bonn 120,000 1,000 



190 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND, 



CHAPTER III. 

THl 

^npHE German publishing business, not less tl 
-L authorship, differs very materially from that 
Unil The number of publisl 

Schulz's Director) I >r the German Book Trade f<-r i 
contains the names and addn I 4,230 firm 

whom are publishers. I h 
to a few large cities, can be found in town 
throughout the empire. It is not 1 
that a book shall hear the imprinl 
in order to pass into public but tha 

should be worthy of approval. The- question i 
Is it a Brockhaus or a Perth k? but, Wl n it? 

And it is but just to the critical journals that it 

rare for a work 
bation because of the house whirl'. it. The I 

number of publishers in Germany is du 
to the fai t thai J is no! 

publish a numbei :na11 d < 

finds it ly in hi 

and then in 01 
brethren. If he 1 in brii 

i in ru*s guild 
1 mall ex] ol manufai luring 



THE MANUFACTURE OF BOOKS. 191 

is due to three causes. First, the cost of printing mate- 
rials and compositors' work is low. It is now becoming 
common for publishers in Great Britain, France, Russia, 
other parts of Europe, and sometimes of the United 
States, to avail themselves of the cheap German rates for 
having such works printed as do not require the author's 
inspection of proof-sheets. The Leipzig rates of printing 
are from twenty-five to forty per cent, cheaper than those 
of Paris or London. But the printing of an English 
work in any part of Germany is never advisable. I have 
had two experiments in this matter, and each of the books 
required the examination of at least five proofs where but 
one would have been needed if the compositors had been 
English or American. A friend of mine who had placed 
a fine work of art in the hands of a Leipzig printer, had 
more than one season of shedding tears as he found that 
the compositors had made fearful havoc with his copy, and 
had then printed all the blunders in a whole edition of 
the rich paper that had been manufactured especially for 
his work. 

Second, the books are not bound, but simply folded and 
stitched, with paper covers. The custom of issuing books 
unbound is common to all the continental countries, and 
is really a great popular advantage ; for many persons are 
able to buy an unbound book who, otherwise, could not 
have the work at all, and all other purchasers can consult 
their own taste as to style. The binding of books not 
being done by the publisher, it has become an independent 
and important branch of business. The buyer of books 
has his own binder as much as his own bookseller. The 



LI II- IN THE FATHERLAND. 

if •>' '-"" „ Km. re- 

united State '7" 

,,„,,,. a „d Matthews, the Turn, 

,„,,,. Tbehabu "> 

„„ lvll , II ks.andtop.Uth 

2 Lhing, and stiff pape, 

bound costs ■ 

half Turkey costs a, tfortycents. l^ehadd" 

m08 bound beantifuUy by Geffken. .n p«*» 

gold. Chans' 

t , in Frankfort, thirty 

bound voluro, , their shelves, but njon 

*ke than otherwise 1 

Likes to buy one with ft 

enjoyment in taking his 

he wants it preps rhim.and, 

ho« i. progr, »y how '"■ 

One result of the binding of b 

publisher is the I * m 

Hbrariea I not! 

they. pi »*"* 

boundiuH.orsoche.plj 

inahund, 

7 



THE MANUFACTURE OF BOOKS. 1 93 

of the binding, the book itself is, if it has to pay the author 
a copyright, dearer in Germany than in America. Schaff's 
"Church History" is dearer in Leipzig than as Scribner 
offers it, binding taken into consideration. I believe that 
the average German prices on all copyright books are, at 
the lowest calculation, thirty per cent, higher than in 
America. The publisher unquestionably gets a higher 
percentage, for the cost of manufacturing a book in Ger- 
many is not over two thirds what it is in New York or 
Boston. But then the sales are smaller, and the Ameri- 
can publisher makes more in the long run. His risks, 
however, are greater. The German publisher treads 
carefully. 

Still, no country can equal Germany in the low price of 
all books on which no copyright is paid. For instance, 
you can buy Schiller complete now for a thaler, and Goethe 
for three. I have a superior edition of Goethe in six large 
octavo volumes, with steel plates and half morocco bind- 
ing, that cost only twelve florins, or $4 80 gold. Since 
the copyright of these two German classics has expired, a 
number of publishers have devised plans for getting the 
run of the trade. But J. G. Cotta, of Stuttgart — the house 
which held the exclusive right, and the publisher of the 
Augsburg " Allgemeine Zeitung" — appears to have un- 
derbidden all his rivals, and his several editions of these 
authors are both the cheapest and best. 

The following are the rates, in gold, at which some of 
the principal litterateurs are sold, noted down during occa- 
sional loiterings, or gleaned from the profuse advertise- 
ments : Schiller's complete works, in one volume, with por- 



LIFE IS 
trait 

steel M 80 ; 

unbound, for l 

nvolum ^ 0i 

his 1 1 dram 

thirl 

j, in muslin, %\ 

- 

■ 

: 



THE MANUFACTURE OF BOOKS. 195 

The ideal first edition, except in fiction, is only a good in- 
tention. Every book, to be permanently valuable, should be 
a growth ; and if the first edition has not vitality to survive 
its birth, the book deserves to die. But if a thousand copies 
are sold, it merits again the author's revision, and a re-ap- 
pearance before the public with all the improvement derived 
from new studies and the judgment of the critics. It has 
been to me a matter of interest to place the first edition 
of a valuable German work beside the last and mark the 
wonderful development. It is like contrasting the grown 
man with his little self in baby-frocks. I have beside me 
a little work — now very rare — Hagenbach's " Uebersicht 
der Dogmengeschichte," published when its author was a 
young professor in Basle. But who would recognize, in the 
present two ponderous volumes, the work of the same hand, 
the manhood of that of which the thin brocliure was the 
infancy ? Had stereotyping been the rule, that work, like 
hundreds of others possessing great value, would never have 
ripened into its present golden maturity. Stereotyping 
precludes the expression of a change of view, embalms 
errors, frustrates the purposes of criticism by excluding its 
suggestions, destroys an author's permanent interest in 
his work, and renders null his new researches in the same 
department. ■ This can be clone if the plates are canceled ; 
but how many publishers are willing to issue improved 
editions at the expense of a new set of plates ? 

The absence of stereotyping in all the European coun- 
tries limits each contract between publisher and author to 
the single edition. For a second edition a new contract 

is made, and so with each in future. 
9* 



LIFE IN \ND. 



CIIAI'l ER IV. 

' | "N 1 K manm 
1 

i 
meth tmmuni 

their . and their all 

to make the public bu 

publisher to undcrral 
any way th 

■ 
in th 

fills his 

the I 

the 

■ 

\Y tin inn; 



USAGES OF THE GERMAN BOOK-TRADE. 1 97 

brought to the knowledge of the buying public. This 
result is reached, in great measure, by the following pe- 
culiar means. Your bookseller, knowing well your taste, 
sends you by a messenger every few days, generally Sat- 
urdays, one or more books, which you are expected to 
examine briefly. If you choose to buy one or more of 
them you simply retain them, but otherwise you cause no 
offense by returning them. They are not expected to be 
retained for inspection more than a fortnight. There are 
two large booksellers in Bremen, Messrs. Mtiller and 
Kuhtmann, who supplied me every week with valuable 
new theological books, which I returned in two weeks by 
the same messengers who had delivered them. Of course, 
I kept one now and then, checking these on the bills 
which always came with the books, and which I always 
sent back. In Frankfort similar kindness was shown by 
the dealers. This was no special favor to me, but a usage 
with the booksellers. The clerks always kept a register 
of all the books thus sent out. Many a time I lost 
track of a book, thinking I had sent it home. But after 
a long time the presentation of the bill by the same mes- 
senger who brought the books set me to seeking, and 
finding, and paying. The leaves must not be cut, for this 
would require you to retain the book. A bookseller has 
a large circle of customers whom he thus supplies at reg- 
ular intervals with the latest issues from the press. 

If a customer wishes to examine any work in print, and 
on sale by its publisher, he need only inquire for it at his 
bookseller's, and, if not on hand, a copy will be ordered 
"for inspection." In such cases it is generally assumed 



/.// \THEK 

that th it if the 

return * 

It 
■ 
* h:m the one 

H 
:rit-i»« 1, k m intru- 

sion tu be consult* Id. 

When th< 

le by the retailers to I 

the 
k1 settlenx 

■ 

the 

.vr and th< 
■ 

Id. At the 1 

the 

int to him. 1 
ommunicate with the publi 
comi 

but sends li 

— ." 
the l 



USAGES OF THE GERMAN BOOK-TRADE. 1 99 

directions ; and by the time its work is done it is covered 
with all possible records, illegible to any but such experts 
as are known only to the counting-room of a German book- 
store. I once ordered through a Frankfort dealer a copy 
of Low's "Annual Catalogue" for a certain year. Of 
course, the order was not sent to England directly, but 
first to Leipzig, to the commissioner. It came back in 
about five weeks, marked, " Can't be fished up." 

" These little slips," says Mr. F. Leypoldt, our best 
American bibliographer, " be they many or few, are sent 
by mail to the commission house by all its constituents, 
and are by it deposited in the Booksellers' Exchange post- 
office, where they are sorted and re-delivered to the com- 
mission houses, four times daily. On lively days, from 
fifty to sixty thousand slips, letters, circulars, or other 
written or printed communications, pass through this 
department of the Booksellers' Exchange, and the annual 
delivery exceeds ten millions of documents. This im- 
mense service is done with wonderful accuracy, and abso- 
lutely without charge, the expense being borne by the 
Exchange Association for the benefit of the whole trade. 
. . . The relation of the commission house to its constitu- 
ents, in the capacity of banker, is exactly like that of any 
banker. Interest is allowed or charged on daily balances, 
as the case may be, the charge being generally one per 
cent, per annum more than the allowance. A small bank- 
er's commission is also charged, and the extent of credit, 
if any is allowed, is purely a matter of personal agreement. 
As a forwarder, the commission house receives an annual 
(very moderate) fixed salary, gauged by the probable 



Li 

■ 
■ 

ind. It t: 

I 

tl 
r, mail 

at tl 
the I 

tion 
deli\ 

l 
mm, 



USAGES OF THE GERM AX BOOK-TRADE. 201 

The relations between the German publisher and his 
authors are most cordial. London and New York have 
the advantage over Leipzig in this respect, for while the 
last city absorbs a large share of the publishing interests 
of Germany, the authors are scattered all over the coun- 
try, and often the author and his publisher never meet. 
The authors' circles cannot be so great, accordingly, as 
those of London in our day, or even of the time when 
Byron, in his mock epistle to Dr. Palidori, makes Murray 
say :: — 

" The room's so full of wits and bards, 

Crabbes, Campbells, Crokers, Freres, and Wards, 

And others, neither bards nor wits ; 

My humble tenement admits, 

All persons in the dress of gent, 

From Mr. Hammond to Dog Dent. 

A party dines with me to-day, 

All clever men who make their way ; 

Crabbe, Malcolm, Hamilton, and Chantry, 

Are all partakers of my pantry. 

My room's so full — we've Gifford here, 

Reading MS. with Hookham Frere, 

Pronouncing on the nouns and particles 

Of some of our forthcoming articles." 

Of the beautiful friendships existing between German 
publishers and their authors ample witness is borne by 
the accounts of the evenings passed at the delightful 
home of the elder Perthes, to whose wife, the daughter 
of "The Wandsbeck Messenger," the meetings owed 
much of their wealth of taste, gentleness, and cheerful- 
ness. No publishers exceed those of Germany in the lib- 
erality of their terms, and the pains they take to cultivate 
intimate social relations with their authors. I have never 



1.1! I. IX THE FATHERLAND. 

■ 
l bout, who, I 

up the 
rily made another, which 

1 
when the n , c thick 

not of the guild to i anydifl 

storm may have its lulls now and then, but they he! 

tie il in barely ; • them, while 

fairly blinded by the flaky cloud. P 

st.. re wind 

•k or two, if not an armfi 
nines. And what pas 

measured by the Amei 
hical longevity. We call l i, j s 

really six monl 

new book in German) must 
veal you eat in the Con tin 

but a : 
rl by the last train. Its ink 
and its paper is hardly drier than \ 



THE PARADISE OF BOOKS. 203 



CHAPTER V. 

THE PARADISE OF BOOKS. 

LEIPZIG is the center of the world's book trade. All 
4 its streets give evidence of the reign of books. It 
was an easy thing to specify and compliment the book- 
stores of classic days, but it would require poets of more 
wisdom and patience than Martial to individualize those 
of Leipzig as that author could easily deal with those of 
old Rome : 

" You see a shop with titled posts, 
And read whate'er Parnassus boasts. 
Thence summon me, nor ask the dweller : 
Honest Actretus is the seller. 
From out the first or second nest 
He'll hand me, rais'd in purple vest. 
Five humble tenpences the price, 
A bard so noted and so nice." 

Some streets are almost entirely devoted to the business, 
which is so interwoven with the very life of all the people 
that to take out of the city all the inhabitants connected 
in some way with the manufacture of books would amount 
to a depopulation. But a stranger is disappointed at the 
comparative absence of books in a city where he expects 
to see them on every hand. The habit there, as every- 
where in Germany, is to do business largely by corre- 
spondence, and but little stress is laid upon the exhibition 
of books. I was amazed, when taking a letter of intro- 
duction to a publishing firm, to find the business con- 
ducted in a quiet little counting-room, where the members 



:n the few 
There 
: the 

• 

■ 

and the 

requisite in G 

The 

■ 

time 

I 
mak 

■ 

iwn th 

■ 

2,1 IJ 



THE PARADISE OF BOOKS. 205 

9,095 issues in Germany, 1,582 appeared in Leipzig and 
1,299 m Berlin. Attempts are now being made to increase 
the facilities of the book-trade in Berlin, where the book- 
sellers' combination of that city are proposing to establish 
an exchange, which shall answer all the financial and 
social wants of the trade. It will contain, for the various 
gatherings, a large hall, which may from time to time be 
used as a place of exhibition for books and works of art ; 
a library, and a restaurant, which will be adapted to the 
wants of clerks as well as masters ; and apartments for 
the diversified branches of the book business. 

It is not likely, however, this relation will ever be 
changed. The predominance of Leipzig in the book-trade 
dates from 1765, when, through the exertions of Nicolai, 
Reich, and others, the publishers transferred thither from 
Frankfort-on-the-Main their central operations. In that 
place the trade was carried on in the most primitive 
method imaginable, for the publishers simply met and ex- 
changed their publications, and returned to their homes with 
their new wares, looking for their profits to their success 
in selling the same. On the removal of the center to 
Leipzig the German Booksellers' Association was organ- 
ized, and though it had to contend with much opposition, 
it strengthened with time, and became the basis, in 1825, 
of the present Exchange Union of German Booksellers. 
At first the number of members was one hundred and 
twenty-five, but it now exceeds one thousand. 

The Union erected, in 1836, a magnificent building for 
business purposes — The German Booksellers' Exchange. 
It is the center of the world's literature. To show the 



2o6 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

m by which the Germ .duct their 

trad ive the followu nstitutii 

the ex( hange, from the pen of Mr. Leypoldt : 

nstitution of the Booksellei 
vides for the common debate on subje J in- 

st, and for a common metl 
Membership is acquired b ular li> < 

business in any branch of the trade ; by the payment 
an initiation tec and annual dues ; by dep the cir- 

cular of the firm, personally signed by the members tl. 
of; and by a written pledge to conform to the rul 
t<» submit to the judgment of the Committer titration 

ises of dispute with any member of the ation <»r 

fraternity. The government isvestedin a I 
orsand standing committees, from whom appeal lies to the 
Genera] Meeting held each spring. The i 
hears the report of the president, el© 
mittees, passes upon the bud§ the next fina 

and adopts rul< n the action of the fraternity in 

their intercourse with one another. The executb 

immitted to the Hoard of l 
committees, whose members are jointly responsi 
unconstitutional act of such board or commit rid indi- 

vidually responsible for their j . acts in 

of the constitution or rules of the General Me. I 

- 

Btanding committees are : On Finance and on 

Building ; on 1 
tion. 1 

members going out annually. The tun. 
first i oinmitte lire no n. 



THE PARADISE OF BOOKS. 207 

" The Committee on Arbitration acts as a commercial 
tribunal between members, who are pledged to obey its 
subpoena, the object being to obviate litigation before courts 
of law between members. Notice of differences is sent 
to the chairman in writing, specifying briefly, yet lucidly, 
the points at issue. The chairman notifies the party 
accused, orders a meeting of the committee, and cites both 
parties to appear. The case is then argued, and every 
member of the committee has the right to propose methods 
of compromise. Minutes are kept by the secretary, but 
on demand of either litigant they must be kept by a 
sworn notary public. The results of the arguments on 
compromise are kept in " Compromise Minutes," signed 
by the chairman and secretary, or notary, if one has been 
employed. Certified copies of the "' Compromise Minutes" 
may be demanded by either party. No charge is made 
for the services of this committee, except for actual dis- 
bursements. The work of this committee has been of 
great benefit to the fraternity in keeping their quarrels in 
the family, in deciding all questions by the common-sense 
views of experts, and in gradually establishing a code of 
fair dealing which has given a high tone to the morality 
of the trade, besides saving court costs. 

" The official organ of the association is the Borsen- 
blatt, or Exchange Paper, which is published under the 
superintendence of the Board of Directors, who appoint a 
managing editor, furnish all official matter for publication, 
determine the rates to be charged for advertising, and 
exercise a general control of the financial and editorial 
management. The Borsenblatt is the recognized Trade 



208 / in-: ix THE /'. i Tin. /:/.. \nd. 

' h which the ti 

J not 

« in pi 

u iably u ill men 

the fraternity in seeking <>r furn 
* • »rial bibliographical pai 
dium <<i trade intercommunication the 

illy on tin. 
tran of titl( 

ponsible clerks. 1 he i ule . the 

e, that whatever brief mention 
<>t books in preparation <»r in the j • Ik: 

illy recorded publicat until I 

in sen 

nahled to pi 

in- 
formation as to title. 

\t ; ami the result is a th 
in merit tl 
and exercising a highly 1>< 
education of the b 
liographical pi »n. 

• The "i the a 

building and Inventory, tl 

hand Its in 
on i 
: 
aihn 



THE PARADISE OF BOOKS. 209 

deposited all documents concerning the actions of the gen- 
eral meetings of the directors and committees, and the 
signed circulars and pledges of members, together with 
every thing connected with the history of the fraternity."* 

In connection with the Exchange, and really forming a 
part of it, are two special institutions. One of them is the 
school for booksellers' apprentices, where young men pro- 
pose to pass through a scientific curriculum in preparation 
for the book business. The three men who have done 
the greatest service for the school, and whose influence 
will be felt through it upon the literature of Germany for 
all time to come, are Friedrich Fleischer, Paul Mobius, 
and Dr. Brautigam. 

The other feature of the Exchange is the Order Insti- 
tution, through which all orders to and for the publishers 
must pass. Every Leipzig publisher commits a certain 
routine portion of his correspondence to this institution, 
and receives from it three or four times every day the 
business papers designed for him. The number of orders 
passing daily through this institution is about seventy-five 
thousand. " The immense parcel business," says Mr. Ley- 
poldt, " is done by porters of the commission houses, who 
deliver and receive several millions of parcels annually, 
with such accuracy that the loss of a parcel in Leipzig is 
almost an unheard-of thing. In the event of such an oc- 
currence, the whole machinery of the Exchange Associa- 
tion is set in motion to find the lost article, and it is sure 
to be found in a very few days. It has generally been de- 
monstrated that the delivery had been correctly made, but 

* "Weekly Trade Circular," February, 1872. 



2IO I. in: IX THE FATHER!. AS: 

that the 

of his tituenl 

■ 
tually li This 

i intclli. md extreme faithfulne har- 

1 >:- . 
sixteen millions of pai 

through the Lei] ind in 

quantity \\ :ly incn 

The Excfa vhere the I rmany 

h<»lil their annual tion, dui It 

formerly th I in of the 1 

met at the fair, I dif- 

- ; but these matl 
by the commis 
do than ex 
fnr th> 

ent three hundred an 
sellers from various \ 
made through their commissionei 
a half millions <>f thalers I 
■ • . 

elude their annual in. 
inent, where, 
they are qu 

Rhenish \\ with the 

litei 

1 the groat i 

I 
instituti 



THE PARADISE OF BOOKS. 211 

of Germany appear there. There are about thirty-five 
music stores and publishing houses, at the head of which 
stands the celebrated firm of Breitkopf and Hartel. This 
house has been in existence one hundred and sixty years. 
It issues twelve thousand productions in its musical depart- 
ment alone, and employs three hundred men. The music 
engraving establishment of Roder produces annually, by 
its one hundred and forty artisans, twenty-four thousand 
plates of notes, uses thirty-nine thousand pounds of metal, 
and prints four million sheets of music. 

Leipzig being the heart of the book-trade, book-bind- 
ing likewise forms an important branch of business. It 
was formerly the habit of the booksellers there to send 
their books to Berlin for stitching and binding, but so 
great ha& been the improvement in the Leipzig binders 
of late, that the books are now folded and prepared for 
the retailer before leaving the city. The habit also now 
is for publishers, in whatever part of Germany they print, 
to send their entire editions to Leipzig for folding and 
stitching. In the year 1830 there were in the city thirty- 
two master binders, and seventy journeymen. In 1867 
there were one hundred and twenty-five masters, four hun- 
dred journeymen, one hundred and forty-five apprentices, 
eighty-six women, and forty-seven messengers ; and these 
numbers are constantly multiplying. Publishers, where- 
ever they live, prefer Leipzig as the place for printing 
their works. The presses are numerous. In the city and 
surburban towns there are forty-seven book-printing estab- 
lishments, where three hundred and sixteen presses are at 

work, conducted by seventeen hundred and fifty men and 
10 



212 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

women. Many of the journals and reviews of Germany 
which bear the imprint of various cities are actually 
printed in Leipzig. '1 he " Bazar" is ostensibly 1 in 

Berlin, but has the Leipzig imprint. 

PUBLISHED IN Gl ^73- 

i Litcratui ... 321 

Theology 

Law, I 1 

Medicine and Veterinary Practice 

Natural Sciences. Chemistry, and Pharma J 

Phi! 

Pcdaj.; : 

Juvei 

:cal and Oriental works; Archaeology and Myth- 



690 

I 339 



Militai nt of Horses 



Archil 

Hunting, Cull 

ilture and Horti ulture.... 3'° 

998 

Fine Art-,, Painting, Mil hy 

Popular Pamphlets, 





300 

; 

XI - for [874 show an incn 

O.OOO 

publication '1 in < ierman) Froi 

the average number per annum v I 

the numbei 

•he hi: ; twcni> 



THE PARADISE OF BOOKS. 2 1 3 

8,326,1111851; 1870 produced 10,108; 1871,10,669; 1872, 
11,127. Jt must not be imagined from these statistics, 
however, that all works occupying a place in the German 
bibliographical announcements are so many respectable 
volumes. The custom is — and it is really the only reliable 
way of keeping a complete literary record — to announce 
together all works that are thrown into the market. The 
pamphlet may stand side by side with the encyclopaedia, 
cover as much space with its little body, and have its price 
and publishers printed in as large type as Tischendorf s 
Sinaitic Codex, Sepp's Palestine, or Dora's Bible. So in 
the classified catalogues, a work that occupied the best 
five years of its author's life is just as prominent as the 
.brochure that he threw off at a sitting. Down to 1862, 
Dr. Lange had published forty-one different works — and 
he has been going on at the same rate ever since, for that 
matter — and, out of that number, eleven cost less than 
twenty-five cents each, eight less than eighteen cents, and 
three but eight cents. The man who worked up a concord- 
ance of Tennyson may yet live to produce a Bibliographia 
Langica. The late Dr. F. W. Krummacher published, 
down to the same year, sixty-eight works, but the most of 
them are single sermons, each costing about ten cents. 
However, among his works and those of Lange there are 
a good number of octavos, and in some instances several 
volumes to a single work. 

The wisdom with which the Germans conduct the book- 
trade, and the extent to which they have carried it, will 
appear all the greater when compared with two neighbor- 
ing people — the Russians on the east, and the Scandina- 



214 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

vians on the north. "The I ling 

critical aul edi- 

tion. I ' mutual 

the mon I then the liah- 

. tie publish* He will 

deliver three, five, <»r six 
twenty-five must I 

are never sent to the tra<: 
sian on< 

ent of intellectual life. R ; iblishing 

tradi 

.. and it is an 'event' when 
lished in Kiew. Charkov, i 

from Rus 

,000 silver rubles, and the im| 500.000 

ruble I • the ii 

hed th« 
rubles. < >i this sum I 

.1 .000 rul 

of importation 
decn 

hundred and thirteen 

mseque 
book-trade, and the inactivitj entific life, i> the 

bibliography. 1 
• in thi 
. but tl 

; . 
i K 

urn 



THE PARADISE OF BOOKS. 21 5 

tant Russian lending library, which also included scientific 
works, and in which nearly all the most important Rus- 
sian literature is registered. Then came a long pause 
until i860. From this date till 1S67 the "Bibliographical 
Messenger" {Kuischui Westnik) appeared semi-monthly, 
edited first by Senkowsky, and later by Rostowzew, in St. 
Petersburg. It met the most pressing needs of the Rus- 
sian book-trade, and in a certain degree gave accurate 
information about new literature. This publication, nev- 
ertheless, was discontinued from lack of support in 1867, 
having only an edition of five hundred copies." * 

The international copyright movement has been, and 
still is, resisted by Russia. The " Moscow Gazette," in 
an article on the subject, gives the following official statis- 
tics of the import and export of books for the last five 
years, and concludes from them that the interests of Rus- 
sia would not be promoted by an international copyright 
law. In 1866, books, maps, and music were exported to 
the value of 104,097 rubles ; imports amounted to 465,153 
rubles; 1867, exports, 168,813 rubles, imports, 464,765 
rubles ; 1868, exports, 128,649, imports, 1,103,380 rubles ; 
1869, exports, 106,462, imports, 990,400 rubles ; 1870, ex- 
ports, 83,714, imports, 1,153,082 rubles. 

PUBLISHING STATISTICS OF SCANDINAVIA. 

Country. Area in Inhabitants. Cities. Book-print- Book- 

Square Miles, ing Houses. Stores. 

Denmark 14,000 1,700,000 75 119 623 

Norway 120,000 1,750,000 46 60 124 

Sweden 170.000 4,160,000 82 114 162 

* " Magazin des Auslandes." Translated by J. P. Jackson. 



Zt6 1.1 IE IN Th D. 

I 
• 
Christiana. 1 im- 

i publishti 

ind ihe 
other in t! the 

'tier li 

1 here 
in the thn — 

la. 

I .... 

. . — 

.... 

l i 

\> 

'11 

houses, <<i \\hi> h < 

i twelve, and S;<>. kholm thn 

l>v three unions, all of wh 









THE BROCK HA US P UB LI SUING HO USE. 2 1 7 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE BROCKHAUS PUBLISHING HOUSE. PERTHES. 

THE celebrated Brockhaus publishing establishment 
in Leipzig, Germany, was commenced in 1805 by- 
Frederick Arnold Brockhaus. At present it is in posses- 
sion of Henry Brockhaus and his two sons, Henry Ed- 
ward and Henry Rudolph. The branches of publishing 
business conducted by it are so varied, and the energy, 
system, and foresight exercised in its difficult management 
from the outset have been so marked, that its reputation 
is now European, or rather, world-wide. 

One morning in the latter part of July, 1868, I made a 
visit to the Brockhaus establishment. All the accounts 
which I had heard of the magnitude of its operations and 
of the management of the business, were far below the real 
results of personal inspection. The plain sign of " F. A. 
Brockhaus, 29 Queer-strasse," was all that indicated its 
locality. Entering through the street doorway, I found 
that the high and broad buildings were constructed 
around three large quadrangular courts, each court con- 
taining the refreshing contrast of a thick and beautiful 
growth of flowers and fruit-trees. Each building is de- 
voted to a general branch of the business, while the 
different floors arid sections are used for the respective 
subdivisions. Every department has its own counting- 
house, its allotted managers, and its bibliographical head ; 



2l8 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

while there mple room in which the wh 

eral m 1. Thi 

the I to which all returns arc fii 

From the most distant work 
apprentii e. [t is the heart, which 
igth to the whole establishment I made men 
11 h department — of the number of h 
i much of the machinery used. 

The various branches • »t hi. in the 

tablishment ai — 

r. A 1 rtaining tment of Gem 

and foreign works that arc in part issued h 1 in 

part arc only on commission. There an ral imm 

• ms in which I 
1 its proper pi . I forthcoming 

•i <>rdcr from any ; • : !. [t is im- 

mpute the nui 
they ami unit to hundn ; . • 

book-store stricth under this 

xtensive and unique a chai I will s[K-ak i 

r. The blank paper de| 
thousand bales of paper re 
These contain thi: 

lightning pi driven I m, and I 

This section is und 

1 of I 

in some of tlv 

■ 
I 

' all in 



THE BROCKHA US P UBLISHING HO USE. 2 1 9 

Brockhaus building. He seemed greatly surprised to hear 
that such machinery was in existence, and was very much 
interested in a rough explanation of its operation. 3. A 
type-foundery. There are six foundery-furnaces, each re- 
quiring four men for its management. There are twelve 
machines for casting type. 4. A stereotype-foundery. 
The stereotyping is conducted according to the systems 
of Stanhope and Danle. Stereotyping by use of paper is 
also practiced, and extensively applied. 5. A galvano- 
plastic establishment. 6. An engraving and letter-carv- 
ing department. 7. A geographical and artistic estab- 
lishment for printing on stone and copper. There are 
thirteen copper and five lithographic presses. The stone 
is brought hither in its rough state, and prepared for print- 
ing by workmen here. The only stone in Germany fit for 
this purpose is transported from an obscure little village in 
Bavaria. The Brockhaus maps are celebrated throughout 
the world, and they, too, are produced here. Maps are 
prepared in any language, according to the order. A 
magnificent map, ordered by the Chinese government, 
and containing only Chinese characters, was nearly ready 
at the time of my visit. 8. A xylographical establish- 
ment. 9. A mechanical work-shop. 10. A book-bindery. 
11. The antiquarian book-store. 

I was on the point of leaving the establishment when 
an opportune remark of my attendant called attention to 
this most interesting and attractive department. It is im- 
possible for even the proprietors to tell how many second- 
hand books they have on sale without consulting their 

records, for the number is constantly changing in conse- 
10* 



220 LIFE IX THE FATHERLAND. 

quence of new orders and purchases. One hundred thou- 
i is a very low estimate <>f the present number on the 
shelves. These works are gathered from all p 

• 1 combine all branch nee. The; 

• ten thousand theological works in store now. Some- 
times whole libraries are bought at once. Then. 
man whose sole business is to travel all over Europe, and 
make purchases of books that may be for either privat 
public sale. He had just returned from Venice, whither 
he h tnciani' library, bringing with 

him the three hundred and sixty-seven which held 

from fifty to sixty thousand volumes. < me 
contains the folios and rare works aloni •: I -hem 

are in excellent condition, and the illuminated mis 
have been selected with the most critical judgment 
have never seen an antiquarian book-Store in which the 
books are in such excellent condition as are those in the 

khaus establishment. 
In the antiquarian department there is a magnificent 

collection of both English and American authoi 

every valuable book issued in the United States for many 

years may be found here ; I must say. too, that there .. 

not worth the price of their transportation 5 the 

Atlantic. Hut there is no perfect antiquarian coll< 
tli-- Brockhaus is, perhaps, as near it as we tbly 

expect The young man bavin-- the m I this 

branch of the business is thorough! .vith all 

its details. His name is PinCUS, and he adds to lus | 

bibliographical attaim mplishmenl 

tlcman. II up all the Brockhaus antiqu 



THE BROCKHA US P U BUSHING HO USE. 2 2 1 

1 »gues, which may be taken as models by all catalogue- 
makers. The Bibliotheca Historica (1866) is a completely 
classified register, with minute index at the close, of 8,663 
historical works offered for sale by this one house. The 
catalogue of rare works on America alone, published from 
1508 to 1700, occupies seventy-two pages of a closely- 
printed octavo volume. Herr Pincus has commenced the 
issue of completely classified catalogues of all the second- 
hand works now on hand. He had just given to the 
printer copy for the Theological Catalogue, which will 
constitute the first of the series. Italian literature will be 
the second, jurisprudence the third, and philosophy the 
fourth ; and so on, until the entire circle is completed. 

From this enumeration it will be seen that in this one 
establishment there are many subordinate ones combined. 
Every thing which a publisher needs, with perhaps the 
two exceptions of paper and the heaviest machinery, is 
manufactured around those three quadrangles, and under 
the personal inspection of those most interested in its use. 
If the Messrs. Brockhaus continue to supply their own 
wants in the future as rapidly as they have in the past, it 
need not occasion any surprise to see their advertisement 
for rags, and to learn that they are conducting their own 
paper-mill. There is the same diversity in the publications 
issued with their imprint as in their antiquarian collection 
and in the chemical department. They publish many 
theological books in the course of the year, but far more 
on other branches. They are as apt to publish a love- 
story as a commentary on Romans, and a skeptical as an 
orthodox book. There is no specialty, and apparently no 



LIFE IX THE FATHERLAND. 

theological prel Their aim is to publish what has 

merit, no matter what it be. In thi have 

le many a miscalculation ; but their 
sufficient evidence that Ihey have hit the mark more 
frequently than they have missed it. To a coraplish this 
much in Germany, where there is, if possible, much 
iter rivalry among publishers than in any other coun- 
try, is sufficient evidei the intelligence and judgment 
controlling the establishment. 

In proof of the general good cl reat di. 

sity oi the publications issued during the si.\tv-t\\ 

;' the firm, some of the representative works 
may be enumerated. The Com the 

m<»st widely circulated work of encyi 
ture in Europe. It is a popular cycl 
after the style of the British Penny Cycl< 
mure iis.t'ul and complete. It was completed in i ■ 
Three hundred thousand have air* sold 

A monthly magazine, (Jnsere Zeit, has alrea 
high favor; several volumes of the new - 
peared. A smaller Conversations-Lexikon, for n 
practical use, has reached the second edition. Von 1 
and Karl Welcli ts-Lexikon is now 01 

third edition; while the Illustrirte HauS-und-Famili 

Lexikon, a work designed to meet the imm« 

' life, has met with great favor. The fii 
<»t Wander's Deutsche Sprichv* 
• 
tire work. 

< M woiks of art. the S< lull. he 



THE BROCK HA US P U BUSHING HO USE. 223 

Gallerie, with designs by Pecht and von Ramberg, stand 
deservedly high. The first half of the Lessing Gallerie is 
not behind its predecessors of the same class. In addi- 
tion to these engravings on steel there are many others on 
copper, stone, and wood. The Illustrirter Handatlas, and 
the Geographischer Handatlas Tiber alle Theile der Erde, 
together with many works of travel and adventure, abound- 
ing in wood-cuts, are also issued here. One series of 
German Classics of the Middle Ages, and another of Ger- 
man Poets of the Sixteenth Century, have been already 
commenced. There are also many works published in the 
English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, and Russian 
languages, embracing the most of the representative works 
in the belles-lettres sphere of the respective nations. 
There have also been published scientific works in Persian, 
Turkish, Sanscrit, Syriac, Tamul, Calmuck, ancient Greek, 
Ethiopic, and Hebrew. In addition to all these publica- 
tions a daily paper is issued, the Deutsche Allgemeine 
Zeitung. 

There is a bindery in which all the books manufac- 
tured by the Messrs. Brockhaus are bound, while they 
manufacture their own plates for stamping and ornament- 
ing the covers. They take orders from other publishers 
for printing books. I saw a large English work, an 
order from a London house, which was passing through 
their press. 

At the beginning of the year 1867 there were five 
hundred and sixty-two persons in their employ ; they now 
have six hundred and fifty. There is one respect in 
which the Tauchnitz house has far surpassed that of 



224 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

khaus. I mean in the number of rej 

American \\ her pu 

done a lithe of what Tauchnitz 

>h literature on tbi 
foin. inslatii . idi- 

nitz " imprint, served up in p 

en it to 
American n The ! 

to be studied in all the German 
intelligent Germans t let with on the h 

travel can speak English raon nitz 

ntributed largely toward this 

the 
in the 1 ■ in which it h :i. 

Thi B lishmenl 

man publishing 

1 rally, the German publisher 1 
and would as little think of divei 
fort hanker would go in quest <>t tl 
( >ne hoi onfined to th< 

books, another to the I 

another to the ( ierman ( 

and another to agriculture I 
who limits his issu 

and his 

1 lis name, J 
( hi . .hi. h Perthc the 

publi 

I 

i < H 



THE BROCK HA US P UBLISHL\ 'G HO USE. 22$ 

years in Leipzig were bitter enough, and no little booksell- 
er's boy was treated worse than " Fritz." But he fought 
his way up, became a bookseller in a small way himself, 
then a publisher, and, after the overthrow of the Napole- 
onic supremacy, the representative of the German pub- 
lishers on all important occasions, and the reorganizer of 
their business in its relations to the German government. 
His wife seems to have had no less foresight than her hus- 
band. The whole story of their checkered life, crowned at 
last with abundant success, is told in a number of books, 
but best of all in a translation from the German, entitled 
" Memoirs of Frederick Perthes." 

The son has been for a long time endeavoring to gather 
about him the best geographers of Germany, and secure 
the very best fruit of their pens. And he has not been 
unsuccessful. Both the Berghauses, Petermann, Spruner, 
Stieler, Sydow, Barth, Van de Velde, Menke, and many 
other geographers and cartographers, appear on his cata- 
logue, and seem to publish solely through him. In the 
special department of map-publishing he has no rival. 
Booksellers and others — for example, Meyer of Hilburg- 
hausen — publish maps on a large scale ; but those which 
are prepared by the artists of Justus Perthes are the most 
carefully and scientifically gotten up, and are the recog- 
nized standards in Europe. They are always accepted by 
the governments as authority. Petermann's Geographical 
Communications, Van de Velde's Map of Palestine, 
Menke's Bible Atlas, Spruner's Atlas of the Ancient 
World and Historical Atlas, Curtius' Maps of Athens, 
Kiepert's Maps, and many others, are among its issues. 



226 LIFE IX THE FATHERLAND. 



CHAPTER VII. 

-I l OND-HAND RAPHV. 

N' O country can equal <■ in the multitude 

old books. The vei I heir wi 

paper from among the unstitched and ui 

■ lias and classics. An old fruit woman in q 
tingen gave me a quart <»t cherries in a cornu< 
made of the unfolded l< k 11 ij 

Thirty the antiquarian I I 

nearly monopolized by one housi -I O. VVeigel 
the business has developed there 

are twenty-five important antiquarian i 
city. The six largest (»i this number 1. 
million of volumes on hand, 
money amounts to 140,000 thalers. Th< 

mfined to five hou 1 these held in 1 

auctions, when fifty-four thousand 
amounting to t\\" hundred thousand volumes. 1 
from reali. >o thai 

The CUStom • the li': 

men alter then metiim 

more common in 1 than with us. and 

in t iermany than in I Ian I I 
a tin 

up and sent I 
tionecr, to keep ti 



SECOND-HAND BOOKS.— BIBLIOGRAPHY. 227 

The magnitude of some of these individual libraries is 
astounding ; and when the catalogue is made up and dis- 
tributed, the number of works proves to be so great, and 
the books themselves often of such value, that orders are 
made from all parts of Europe and America. The books 
of a distinguished man, however, do not sell because of 
their ownership, but solely because of their intrinsic worth. 
The average German book-buyer does not care a groat for 
the hands that once handled a book, or for the rare auto- 
graph on the fly-leaf. His only concern is, the book's 
necessity for him. The library of the late Prussian court 
preacher, Frederick William Krummacher, was caught up 
by a Potsdam antiquarian, who issued a catalogue on very 
poor paper, and sent it around among the trade. The 
books were priced, and offered at private sale. They were 
declared on the title-page to have belonged, every one of 
them, to Krummacher. But the prices at which they were 
offered were exceptionally low, even below the average. 
No advantage was taken, and none would have been ex- 
pected, of the great man who had once possessed them. 
I bought a number of works from this collection, some ot 
which proved that even in Germany a presentation copy 
is not always read by the recipient. The leaves of a copy 
of Lange's "Vermischte Schriften," bearing the author's 
affectionate autograph, were not even cut ; while a presen- 
tation copy of Van Oosterzee's " Christ among the Candle- 
sticks " had only been read a little here and there, and a 
paragraph or two marked by an unsteady pencil. In the 
early part of 1869 the library of the late Maximilian, of 
Mexico, was offered for sale in Leipzig by List and Francke. 



228 /./. 

rare worth, for Maximilian 
Lted lit' thor, 

but spared no pains or mi Hate all iting 

to M i and the western hemisphere 
but, even in m ".heir 

tiiui with an unfortui 
The luxury <»t' personal attend: 
not known in Germany 
made I rs to 1 

I in eral attempts toattend an auction, i: 

of the u but found that, n«.t bcinf Uer, my 

lesirable. It is no n 
a private purchaser attend 
than that he attend the semi-annua 
vitt's, in New York. The 

like th( 

lently, wh< 
the salesroom the i had im- 

mediately, but must be brought from ti. 
The storehouse is illy in an 

rents are * heap, and ofl 
immi M 

'■ magazin," was on 
fort. 1 Ic kind: 
through labyrinthian alle 
show ids imi 

I nitilull, 

the - 



SECOND-HAND BOOKS.— BIBLIOGRAPHY. 229 

without an immediate answer being given whether or not 
it was on sale. I am convinced that the German method 
of conducting the antiquarian trade is the wisest. In 
the case of auctions, the catalogues are distributed by the 
venders to the retail booksellers at home and abroad, who 
distribute them to those who are in the habit of giving 
orders. 

Then in the regular antiquarian trade there are com- 
plete catalogues of the works on hand, so that no time 
need be lost in delving in a mass of unclassified books, 
in uncertainty as to whether the desired one can be had. 
The German dealer can tell you in a moment if he has the 
book you wish. You can tell yourself, for he will hand 
you his catalogues. No respectable dealer is without a 
catalogue of his collection, and, to adapt it to the changes 
of his assortment, he issues new editions constantly. Un- 
like our American catalogue makers, he enriches his cat- 
alogue but sparingly with enlightening notes, from the 
Dibdins and Homes and Lowndes of the Fatherland, on 
the rare excellence of the particular works ; for he is well 
aware that those who wish the works know quite as much 
about them as he does himself, and that praise begets 
doubt. 

Nowhere as in Germany is cataloguing reduced to a 
complete science. The whole land abounds in Sabins 
and Ezra Abbots. Some of the catalogues of second- 
hand book houses are of marvelous size. Lempertz of 
Cologne issues annually a stout duodecimo, with supple- 
ments at frequent intervals. The one for 1868, the 
sixty-ninth in number, contains 13,710 lots. Brockhaus 



230 /JFK IX THE FATHERLAND. 

and B in addil 

an alphabetical monthly list, wh nJ bro 

•her in solid shap< ederick Mull< 

ly man on the continent \vl ts up 

gue equal to B 
. 
with specimen frontis] 

atalogi imphlel ither ami h 

.•ies, in ire 3,000 I 

Mailer's noted thi 

paper, is one of the best ever issued. It is n 
be 1ki<1 at any pri< e. Some of 1 
have little cuts on the cover — i 
with characteristic motto. 1 the tl 

eal l I 'A A Bnil 

with th. . 

Nordlin :in quiescent, with t: 

Arbeit Friede ; " t 
a broad-frilled and skull-cap] 
mund Feyerabend ; ami thai 

I 

•• 1 I ibenl sua lata libelli." 

Tin- < lermans 
the rmliim 

I hand d 

tin- L*xacl 

I 



SECOND-HAND BOOKS.— BIBLIOGRAPHY. 231 

graphica," is the prince of living bibliographers now that 
Brunet is gone. He publishes a bibliographical monthly, 
and nothing escapes him. Hinrichs, of Leipzig, pub- 
lishes a semi-annual alphabetical catalogue of all the pub- 
lications of Germany. He also issues an excellent quar- 
terly catalogue, classified both alphabetically and topically. 
The last number of the semi-annual is a closely printed 
duodecimo, in 366 pages, comprising twenty-two rubrics. 
While these publications, not to mention the many special 
bibliographies constantly appearing, are intended for the 
general public as well as for the trade, the booksellers 
have a class of directories and helps of various kinds 
which are limited to themselves, and designed to simplify 
and enlarge their intricate business. The excellent " Direc- 
tory of Booksellers," by Mr. J. H. Dingman, of New York, 
may be regarded as an American specimen in the same 
important line. 



LIFE IN TH HERLAND. 



A 



CHAM ER VIII. 

AKV CHA] 5. — AU1 

N a< count of two <>r three of th 



Germany may not inaj 
of the publishing im I must j 

that, to the honor of th 

for its language and literature theincn 

There was a time, and that i when I 

man mind was .skeptical of its own ; 
This wing largely to the influen 

I lerick the who, him 

French than German, was never so much al 
surrounded by Baron d'Holba h, Y ll i 
the destructive I 

and gold could enl m. The mam. 

and literary model nee were held that 

any attempt to banish them from the court an . 

of the nobility, and the 1 
with severe censure on the part of ti. (C m- 

selves. The outside world 
and dull th in tin 

in litei 
in tl fhich p 

" ' 

■ 

nun wl 



LITERARY CHARACTERS. 233 

because of their grotesque and clumsy greatness, not be- 
cause of any many-sided affinities with the great thinking 
world. What she found at Weimar was a surprise to 
her ; and what she wrote was the first revelation to Eu- 
rope of the original creative power of the modern Ger- 
man mind. Lessing was the first recent writer to appeal 
to his countrymen in defense of their own language and 
letters. He pleaded for total independence from foreign 
masters. Klopstock and Korner, who were brought into 
the national struggle for deliverance from the domination 
of Napoleon, followed in the same strain. Goethe and 
Schiller were proofs of what the German intellect was capa- 
ble of producing, and their greatest service lay, not in what 
they immediately accomplished, but in the confidence and 
self-poise with which they endowed the national mind. 
Waterloo proved that the French military power could be 
broken. The Prusso-Austrian war of 1866, by its happy 
issue for Prussia, separated the Germans as never before 
from the Slavic element, and taught them the possi- 
bility of taking the initiative with tolerable safety. The 
Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71 achieved the unity of 
Germany — far less in politics, however, than in literature ; 
and now, for the first time, the Germans are pursuing a 
course totally independent of French models. French is 
still taught in their schools, and always will be, but is re- 
ceiving no more attention than the English. Throughout 
the non-German portions of the continent — save in France 
itself — German is found to be as convenient to travel with 
as the French, while in Scandinavia and the Orient the 
English is getting to be more available than either. 



234 LIFE JN THE FATHERLAND. 

I. 

Bl Kl HOI D An RBACH. 

The little village of Nordstetten Lies high up in the 
mountains of the Schwarzwald, or Bla k Forest The 
people of that region, separated from the .stir and bustle 
of the world, maintain themselv* and the 

rearing of cattle, alter the custom of their ai 
They are the real Black Foresters, who, scorning all the 
storms of the times, have remained unchai ntu- 

The genera] pi of culture has not been able 

disturb their traditional custom high-r 

and rail: irmed the means of communication 1 

the plains and the inhabitants of the mountains, few ' 
elers found their way thither; but now, since the rai 

been brought to the town of /orb, within an hour's 
journey of Nordstetten, the romantic beauty of this ; 
of the Schwarzwald has become known, ami no 
through that primitive region i visit the vill 

ol Nordstetten. Thousands annually make their pilgrim- 

thither from far and near; for the littl 
unknown to the outer world, ha 

renown. It is the birth] f one who is Germany's 

foremost living literar) celebrity in fiction, and almost in 

For the I I the preseni account of him 1 

indebted to an essay, in the German, by Emil 1 

Berthold Auerbachwas bom of parentage on the 

28th oi February, 1812. I [< 
in the village school of his nat . but lai 

the Jewish School which i. 



LITERARY CHARACTERS. 235 

worthy teacher, Bernhard Frankfurter, whom Auerbach 
honors to this day, put a just estimate on the talents 
of his scholar, and exercised an important influence on 
the development of the subsequent master in fiction. As 
his parents, by the advice of his teacher, intended to 
devote him to the study of Jewish theology, he studied 
the Talmud at an early age, and, when thirteen, entered 
the Talmud School at Hechingen, where he remained two 
years, and then went to the Jewish Theological School at 
Carlsruhe, for development as a rabbi. There, among other 
studies, he undertook that of the Latin language, which 
he had commenced in Nordstetten. He also spent some 
hours every day at the gymnasium of that place. He has 
since given expression to the impressions of this period 
in his " Ivo, der Hajrle." In the spring of 1830 here- 
turned to his native Wr.rtemberg, and, after a short period 
of private instruction, entered the gymnasium at Stutt- 
gart. Two years afterward, in 1832, we find him a student 
of jurisprudence in the University of Tubingen ; but he 
soon turned from this study to become a pupil of David 
Frederick Strauss, that ardent disciple of the extreme 
Hegelian wing, who was soon to launch upon the world 
his destructive " Life of Jesus." The fame of Schelling 
attracted young Auerbach the following year to Munich, 
in order to continue his philosophical studies. 

The youth of Germany, were at that time full of schemes 
of progress and free government. The rulers were sus- 
picious of the " young, bold seed," and Auerbach became 
complicated in some disturbance of students, and was 

arrested at Munich. He accordingly spent three months 
1 1 



236 LIFE I. X THE FATHERLAND. 

in the prison of Hohenasperg, in Wfirtemberg, which 

the place where the hris- 

tian Schubart had spent ten years' imprisonment, from 
1777 to ' 7 "T- When again at liberty, Auerbach went to 

lelberg, where he completed his studies during the 
years [834 and 1835. He b • ipie 

of the celebrated historians Schlosserand Gervinus. I 
the scholars manifested espe< ial partiality for the young 
and laborious student ; and then was laid the foundation 
of that intimate friendship which, at a later period, exi 
between the three. During his re Heidel 

Auerbach made his first appearani . writer by the 

publication of a large historical work under the pseudonym 

h Ch r, the 1 : 3 from which enabled him 

to carry on his studii 

The first work under his own name — " Tin and 

the Latest Literal — appeared in the 

strife of that time in which Wol Men/el, like Rich- 

ard Wagner of to-day, railed at all end* >r impr 

ment coming from the and stam 

Laube, Mundt, Winparg, and othen the 

lie legislation. This first experiment wa 
in the year 1837, by the romance of "Spinoza;" an 

short time later, during his residence at Fl 

the Main, by that oi " Dichter and Kaufman n, 1 1 
Tradesman, 

In the year 1840, we find h in 1 

in a translation of the comp 

the Latin, which a] in five volumes in 1841. I 

this period dates that intimal hment with tl 



LITERARY CHARACTERS. 237 

Freiligrath, (who at that time lived at Unkel, on the 
Rhine,) of which Auerbach, in his speech on his friend, 
delivered on the 7th of September, 1867, gave an elo- 
quent procf. During his residence in Bonn the plan of 
the " Dorfgeschichten " (Village Stories) was projected. 
Auerbach himself says concerning it : " When I received 
the news of the death of my father, (in the summer of 
1840,) I wandered for several days alone through the 
Siebengebirge. Deeply moved by a longing for home, I 
wrote out the plan of the first twelve 'Village Stories' 
under the great beeches near Plittersdorf. 1 went to 
Freiligrath. I must have related to him very obscurely 
the plans that were in my head, for they were not dis- 
tinct in my own mind." 

Two years afterward, Freiligrath greeted, from St. 
Goar, the beautiful edition of these " Village Stories " — 
which had already appeared in numbers — with a charm- 
ing poem, of which the following strophes are a 
specimen : — 

" This is a book ! I can indeed not tell 

How it has seized right deep my inmost soul ; 

How by this leaf this heart of mine was struck, 

And how by that one I was nigh o'eFwhelmed ; 

How I, at that, was forced to bite my lips, 

And how, again, I was obliged to smile ! 

All these things have in you alone succeeded, 

Because in life you let your labor ripen. 

What freshly hath sprung forth from out of life, 

Will, even as life itself, seize hold of us ; 

And right and left, with pleasure and with pain 

Will take by storm the generous human heart." 

Auerbach's village stories disclosed to German narrative 
poetry a new sphere of national material, and made an epoch 



238 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

by its form as well as its matter ; for it appeared just when, 
in consequent e of the continued suppression of public life 
in Germany, literature had come to a complete si 
lassitude, so that even the most prominent poets of the 

time considered their gift a misfortune. But "what 
freshly hath sprung forth from out of life will, 1 
life itself, seize hold of us." The>c verified them- 

selves. The volume had a complete success, and, in a 
short time, made the author the popular favorite. It in- 
troduced the people once more to themselves, and 
them what had been lost in the preceding | I by the 

romantic endeavors of •• y,. mg Germarty." A h is, 

in the molding ami description of his forms, m< 

ive than objective; but forms, like fad able 

of distinct meaning, and stand under his treatment 
themselves, alone in all their freshness and h ,e is 

surprised at their great simplicity and artistic finis: 
well as at their profundity ami spiritual apprehens 

The thoughts and representations are joined to a work of 
art in which we see the mind of a poet who ha 
the world in its depths and grandeur. 

The importance of Auerbach docs n 
fact that he has created in his " Y new- 

kind of poetry, for in this he had been anticipat 
in tin- objects which In- h 'ed. for in the 

of the people of the provinces and in 

the Style he is even outdone by others; hut 
•1 the kind and m.i: 

1 many years he was the onlj held that the 

first prim iple of ai t is to submei 



LITERARY CHARACTERS. 239 

a merit all the more striking, since the very opposite idea 
had, for a long time, held sway. 

Many have tried to imitate Auerbach, but without suc- 
cess. His " Village Stories " are not only translated into 
almost all living languages, and have thus become the 
common wealth of all people, but have furnished material 
for other forms of literature. We may mention here the 
dramatizing of one of the most beautiful of these poems, 
the " Frau Professorin," (the Lady Professor,) by Charlotte 
Birch-Pfeiffer, under the title of " Dorf and Stadt," (Village 
and Town.) The poet gave utterance to his feelings at 
this in the " Europa," when he said that the putting of this 
piece on the stage gave him as much pain as it must give 
a father to see his favorite child among mountebanks. 

From 1840 Auerbach lived a wandering life. We see 
him in 1842 in Mayence ; in 1843, in Carlsruhe and Ba- 
den; in 1844 and 1845, in Leipsig, Berlin, or Dresden; 
and after the winter of 1 846-1 847, in Breslau. In the 
latter place he married Auguste Schreiber, daughter of the 
banker Schreiber. He then settled in Heidelberg. There 
Auerbach spent many happy days, his affectionate wife 
sympathizing with the character and retiring ways of her 
husband. But he was not destined to* be so fortunate in 
his domestic life as in his literary productions, for his wife 
died in less than a year. Then Auerbach again com- 
menced his wandering life. He first went back to Breslau, 
and from there, in the autumn of 1848, to Vienna. To 
his residence in the latter city we owe his " Tagebuch aus 
Wien," (Journal from Vienna,) which appeared in 1849, 
and the tragedy, "Andreas Hofer," in 1850. While there 



240 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

he married Nina Landesmann, daughter of the decea 
hanker Landesmann, and sister of the novelist of the 
Vienna " Presse," who writes under the pseudonym of 
1 1 ieronymus Lorm. 

Auerbach then settled in Dresden, which lie made his 
permanent residence, and gave himself up entirely to lit- 
ei Lry labors. There fallowed in quirk succession, " Neues 
Leben," (New Life,) in [851 : two other volumes of "\'il- 
lage Stories" in 1852; and, in separate editions, the 
quisitely beautiful " Barfussle," the pearl of the - 1 
Stories," in 1 s 5 5 . "Deutsche Abende," (German Even- 
ings,) first series, was issued in [858, " Edelweiss" in I 
and"Joseph ira Schr [oseph in the : in i860. 

From the years 1S45 to 1S4.S there had appeared, bes 
"Schrift und Volk," (Writing and People series 

of people's almanacs, under the title, "D< l mn." 

whose contents were particularly designed for the country 
iple, and had much influence. As the port had, in his 
•• \ ili ige Storiesr," found the right way to make the hi. 
classes acquainted with the humbler rank 
he had now discovered a way ^i influencing the people in 

a stricter sense I luring the four years of its appearance, 
the " ( ievatleismann " became the household 

ry rural hearth in Middle and South Germany. The 

I later period, collected ami issued ma 
plete form, under the name ^i " Schat/kastleii: 

mannes," (Treasui I of the 1 ! -.ist in a 

Separate edition, and then in the author's com; 
which appealed in Stuttgart in 

\ ( ,lumes. In iS.j.K theiea; a countei I the 



LITERARY CHARACTERS. 241 

" Gevattersmann," with the title of " Berthold Auerbach's 
Volkskalender," under the co-operative management of 
the first scholars and artists of Germany ; but it only- 
reached a second issue. 

If the " Village Stories " gave a representation of the 
life of the people in an artistic form, for the educated, the 
" Volkskalender " gave a representation, not of the life of 
the people, but of the entire movement of the time. It was 
a noteworthy sign of progress that a talented writer like 
Auerbach should so far depart from the literary traditions 
of Germany as to stake his name in producing a book for 
the people, and not teach to-day what had been acquired 
with difficulty, and only superficially, the day before, but 
to instruct, to strengthen, the popular heart, to teach in- 
dependence of mind, and to excite thankfulness for daily 
blessings. 

Since the year i860 Auerbach has resided in Berlin. 
During the summer months, however, he generally migrates 
to his native South Germany. Among his latest publica- 
tions are "Auf die Hohe," (On the Heights,) new "Deut- 
sche Abende," (German Evenings,) and " Landhsus am 
Rhein," (Country House on the Rhine.) What qualifies 
Auerbach for his high position as the most popular Ger- 
man writer of the present time is, his love and esteem for 
the people, but more especially his honest manner of ex- 
pressing his opinions and feelings, without prejudice or re- 
straint. It can truly be said of him that he is a poet, a 
deep thinker, and a well-wishing, true-hearted man, who 
seeks by his writings to have a good and lasting influence 
on the people. He belongs to the few writers, the aim of 



242 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

whose lives is the culture and material elevation of the 
people. Most popular authors strive, fi I imuse 

their readers — few to teach them. In ord< 
autlv.r must not stand on the height of contemplat 

only, but he must also have the power to ; what he 

thinks. The German who would he the i: i his 

countrymen must have closely observed the period just 

;ed as well as the present, and comprehend the 
sibilities of his land and people, and the 1. de- 

velopment. And this height has been reached by Auer- 
bach, who, in prose fiction and in poetry, has already taken 
his place in the German literary Walhalla as " teacher of 
the people." 

11. 

At' l'l I i KM \\N. 

THE real author of all the great German expedit 
discovery for the last twenty years is Dr. Augustus 1'. 
maun. Without himself being a practical explorer, he has 
traversed in thought the unknown ■ ached out 

the real traveler, inspired him with his own love of re- 
search, furnished him with assistants, apparatu 
money, and after sending him off on the rk of 

exploration, has seen that he was not forgotten when 
<>k him. has kept the public informed 

movements, and has aided him, on his return, in the : 
preparation of Ins reports for the readii He 

born on the [8th of Apr;! . in the viK ch- 

erode, situated in the Golden Meadow, 

l.i. hsfeld and the II - ' Q Jj 



LITERARY CHARACTERS. 243 

father, who was an actuary in the place, was so slender as 
barely to enable him to send the boy to school. Yet the 
mother, secretly entertaining a desire that her son should 
become a theologian, did every thing in her power to give 
him an education. After he had gone through the highest 
school at Bleicherode, he was sent, when fourteen years 
of age, to the gymnasium at Nordhausen. Here he soon 
distinguished himself by his cartographical labors. In 
the lowest classes it was customary, and still is in such 
institutions in German)', to assign this employment to the 
scholars for their labor at home, and Petermann's work in 
that department soon attracted the attention of all his 
instructors. But even later, when he reached the high- 
est classes, he exhibited a preference for geographical 
studies. 

In 1839 Professor Henry Berghaus, the celebrated 
geographer, established an institution in Potsdam for the 
education of geographers and cartographers. He called 
this new institution, with the special advice of Alexander 
von Humboldt, a School of Geographic Art. Through 
some agency, young Petermann's mother was persuaded 
to renounce her preference for his becoming a theologian, 
and though the father's means were still meager, we yet 
find the son, on the 1st of August, 1839, an inmate of 
Berghaus' school. Two of his associates were Henry 
Lange and Otto Goecke, the former of whom is now in 
the employ of the Statistical Bureau at Berlin, and the 
latter died a few years ago. Through the skillful manage- 
ment of the director of the school, all the young men 

became enthusiastic in geodetical, hydrographical, oro- 
11* 



244 LIFE IX THE FATHERLAND. 

graphical, and hical studies ; and a numbei 

them were colaborers in the preparation of cel- 

ebrated "Physical Atlas." This work indirectly ted both 
Lange and Petermann to I id, for it had created such 

attention in Great Britain that A. Keith Johns) 
Edinburgh, having resolved to prepare lish edition, 

found it necessary to mans to work on it; and, in 

1S44, Petermann and Lange were in his employment in 
Scotland. In some parts they labored together, and in 
other parts alone, on Johnston's "Physical which, 

>.> far as both the maps aiul the text are concerned, is not 
simply a translation of Berghaus' work, hut in mon 
than one is new ami independent. 
I luring their stay in Edinburgh the two German friends 
made many excursions to the Highlai with 

them all the necessary apparatus ientific in 

tions. In 1847 Lange returned 
Petermann a while longer in Scotland. Six 1 

rmann went to London, where, though without em- 
inent, he continued hi raphical labors in a quiet 
way. lie was full of faith that he w 
placed in easy circumstances, when he could pui 
chosen studies untrammeled. 1 le soon became 
with Baron Bunsen, at that time the Prus 
dor to the Court of St. James. Bunsen re him 

witli a. ninth, and during the whole ] 1 

man n's stay in London was his firm friend Petermann 

also became tinted with ti. 

phers, Sir R t Mui hison, 

■ 



LITERARY CHARACTERS. 245 

who had already become aware of the share which he 
had taken in the preparation of Johnston's "Atlas," and 
who were well pleased with his enthusiasm for geograph- 
ical studies. Their praise of him was very ardent after 
the appearance of his two magnificent maps of the British 
Isles, one of them describing the hydrographical relations, 
river-plan, and net-work of canals, with all the climatic 
information bearing on the country, and the other being a 
representation of all the English statistics. In 1850 he 
published, in connection with the Rev. Thomas Milner, an 
" Atlas of Physical Geography," with explanatory text. 
He established in London a Geographical Institute, and 
was appointed geographer to the Queen. 

He now began to work in that department which has 
since done more than any thing else to raise him to the 
very front rank of geographers, namely, the organization 
of expeditions for research and discovery in the unknown 
portions of Africa. In 1849 ne was tne means of setting 
on foot the plan by which the English Government sent 
out an expedition, accompanied by German scientific men, 
to Central Africa. He owed the success of his ideas in 
this affair to his friend Baron Bunsen, who represented 
the matter to Lord Palmerston. Palmerston likewise ap- 
proved of it, and gave orders, with the Queen's consent, 
for the fitting out of the expedition. But the great diffi- 
culty was to select the proper German geographers to 
accompany it, and this part of the undertaking was left 
to Petermann. He corresponded immediately with his 
friend Lange, who was at that time in Berlin, and requested 
him to consult with Carl Ritter, of Berlin, on the subject, 



2+G LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

and proposed to him to be one of the expedition. Bui as 
Ritter was at that time absent from the city, Lange made 
the same proposition to Dr. Henry Barth, who had already 
distinguished himself by his journey to Syria, and by his 
bold tours along the north coast of Africa, but was now 
settled as a private tutor in the Berlin University, and 
could not think of going upon such a long and dangerous 
expedition. Petcrmann, fearing that either no Germans, 
or none sufficiently scientific, would join the enterpri.se, 
hastened to Berlin, and had a conversation with Barth and 

n the subject. Barth, whose enthusiasm 
by this time fully awakened, no more felt easy in his quiet 
tutor's chair, and promised to be one of the number to 
join the expedition. < >verweg united with him. 

The expedition set sail on the 5th of October, 1 - 
and its celebrated career is well known. Richardson and 
rweg died in Africa, and Barth was left alone to pur- 
sue the wmk of research. It was now ne< 
assistance to the solitary traveler, and Petcrmann. who 
was well aware of the absolute barrenness of astronomical 
observations in Africa, resolved to supply Barth with an 
astronomer. IK- at once bethought him of Dr. 1 
Vogel, who was at that time an assistant in Bisho 
servatory in Regent's Park, and who, he knew, would be 
ctly willing to go. Through Bunsen's intervention, 
supported by Admiral Smith, Colonel Sabine, and Sir \Y. 
]•'. Hooker, Peterraann gained the consent of the Mini 
of Foreign Affairs, Lord John Russell, who 

tO Barth's assistance. The sad fate which Vogel met had 

a depressing influence upon Petermann, but it was only 



LITERARY CHARACTERS. 247 

for a moment, and was really the beginning of that brill- 
iant series of German exploring expeditions which were 
conceived and organized by Petermann. He did not con- 
fine himself to Africa, but was the first who created, by 
his lectures before the Geographical Society and his 
numerous treatises and newspaper articles, the popular 
sentiment in favor of expeditions in search of Sir John 
Franklin, which have become an integral part of the his- 
tory of modern discovery. 

The year 1854 was the turning-point in Petermann's 
life. His influential friend, Baron Bunsen, retired from 
political life, and left London, and Petermann acceded to 
the repeated call of young Bernhard Perthes, the proprie- 
tor of the Perthes Publishing House of Gotha, to settle in 
Gotha, and take charge of a Geographical Institute, which 
should prove a center of geographical knowledge for Ger- 
many and the world. Perthes believed that Petermann 
was the proper man for the great undertaking, and there- 
fore secured his consent. But Perthes died in 1857; 
this, however, did not seem to deflect Petermann in 
the least from his purpose. In 1855 he had started a 
new journal, which has long since outstripped its com- 
petitors in every language. It is styled, " Mittheilungen," 
— " Communications," from Justus Perthes' Geographical 
Institute, on New and Important Researches in the En- 
tire Department of Geography. But he did not give up 
one of his favorite branches of geographical labor — the 
organizing of expeditions of discovery. In i860, he man- 
aged to get up one for throwing light upon the fate of the 
unfortunate Edward Vogel. He worked long in doubt, 



-4* s LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

but succeeded in securing the assistance of his friends, 
and others who were interested in geographical undertake 
i, for the organization of the first purely German expe- 
dition, and Theodore von Heuglin, Steudner, Munzii 
Kinzelbach, Hansal, and Schubart composed it I 
three of these found their graves in Africa; and though 
the specific object of the expedition was not reached, the 
fruits which were reaped by it have been of incalculable 
service. Petermann, by dint of shrewd management, sent 
out another African expedition under Moritz von Beur- 
mann, with the design of crossing the desert from the 
north to WadaL This expedition, too, notwithstanding 
its unfortunate termination, has thrown a world of light 
upon the district traveled by Beurmann, and lias already 
been made use of by subsequent explorers. The brill- 
iant results of the expeditions of Gerhard Rolfs and of 

Mauch, the former of whom reached the hitherto inac- 
cessible regions of the Sahara, and the latter the almost 
unknown border lands of the Republic of Transvaal, 
likewise owe their origin to Peterraann. II.- also organ- 
ized the German North Pole Expedition of 1868. At 
present he is in the very midst of great plans ami new 

e n ( i 

III. 
K \i i VoGT. 

K \ki. Vogt, the early friend and colaborer oi 
has attracted more popular attention than any other I 
man scientist of the last three de He h 

popular talents as a public lecturer, ami nevei tails to draw 



LITERARY CHARACTERS. 249 

large audiences. He is a strong advocate of the Darwin- 
ian theory of development ; opposition to the Mosaic ac- 
count of the creation is with him almost a monomania. 
His influence is of immense weight in strengthening and 
clothing with scientific garb the materialistic tendencies 
now, unfortunately, rapidly spreading through Germany. 
He was born July 5th, 18 17, in Giessen, where his father 
was professor of medicine in the university, and where 
young Vogt afterward attended the gymnasium and uni- 
versity, with the design of becoming a physician. On 
the removal of the family to Berne, Switzerland, in conse- 
quence of the father's call thither as professor, the son 
became enchanted with the study of zoology, and, after 
his promotion to the doctorate, entered into hearty scien- 
tific co-operation with Agassiz and Desor. In company 
with these men he undertook the celebrated expedition 
of exploration in the higher Alps. He became joint au- 
thor with Agassiz of the " Natural History of Fresh- 
Water Fishes, Fossil Fishes, and Studies on Glaciers." 
In addition to these associated literary labors, he published, 
while yet young, several independent works, among which 
are, "In the Mountains and On the Glaciers," (1843,) 
" Text-Book of Geology and Petrifactions,". (2 vols. 1846,) 
and "Physiological Letters," (1845.) These works have 
passed into several new editions. From 1844 to 1846 
Vogt lived in Paris, where he continued his scientific 
studies with great energy, and united with a number of 
his fellow-countrymen in establishing the Society of Ger- 
man Physicians of Paris. This association is still in 
existence, and has been of much service in aiding young 



250 LIFE l.x THE FATHERLAND. 

deal students from Germany in the successful p 
cution of their studies. From Paris, Vogt went to Italy, 
but receiving a calJ to the University of Giessen, he re- 
paired thither in 1N47. Just then the political revolution 
was preparing to break over Kurope, and he united heart 
and soul with the revolutionists, even accepting an official 
command of troops in their interest. In due time he 
appeared as a member of the Imperial Parliament in 
Frankfort-on-the-Main, where he distinguished himself 
more for his fearless utterances in behalf of political free- 
dom than for practical political skill. He wen 4 ly in 

1. and while there wrote one work, and laid the foun- 
dation for several which have since been published. In 
1852 he went to Geneva, in obedience to a call to a pro- 

' sorship of g . and, in [861, took charge of a very 

successful scientific expedition to the Norwegian < 

and Iceland. 

It ha- been during this last period of Vogt's life, em- 
ing his residence in Geneva, that he has occupied 
most public attention by his strongly pronounced materi- 
alism, and by his untiring eft. .its in giving it currency 
among the masses. In his celebrated controversy with 
Professor Wagner, of Bonn University, on the relation of 
the soul to the body, and on the relation of faith to knowl- 
edge, he appeared at tin- head of the young materialistic 
school with Moleschott, Buchner, and others. In his 
" Implicit Faith in Science," he saj s ; ■■ 1 [ e w ho is a friend 
ot Science cannot :/ C the truth of those d 

relation which enter into conflict with science; nat- 
ural si ience should In- totally liberated from the in flue 



LITERAR V CHARACTERS. 25 I 

of religion and faith." This one sentence is the whole of 
his barren creed, and, indeed, of the whole school which 
he represents. No stronger expression was needed to 
convince every one of Vogt's contempt of revelation ; but 
his individual views, though carefully elaborated, have 
been already successfully met by his own countrymen 
with arguments on the evangelical side. 

Vogt, having become greatly embittered by the recep- 
tion that he has met from his theological opponents, has 
spared no pains to gain a foothold for his opinions in the 
public mind. The following is the substance of his views 
on man's origin, as expressed in the concluding lecture 
of a course in Leipzig. The extract may be taken as a 
specimen of the general tenor of the lectures delivered by 
him to large audiences nearly every winter in the German 
cities : — 

Man, in his pre-historic period, had to defend his ex- 
istence against other species, but he is the only species 
that has been brought to civilization and culture by his 
own labors. With the progress of civilization, the human 
form has been developed in the symmetry and harmony of 
its members, but especially in the development of the brain. 
The skull belonging to an earlier period shows a great 
similarity to that of the brute, and, as the ages advance, it 
indicates a higher development, until, at the present day, 
it is found in the highest state which the world has ever 
known. In comparing man with the monkey, there is a 
great difference perceptible in the development of the 
brain. The young ape and the human child resemble 
each other in the formation of the skull and brain only 



252 UFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

relatively, and the older they grow the more unlike they 
me. With these differences in the formation of the 
ape and man, there are still gradations: the lower grades 
extend, as by individual branches, up to the higher, and 
these again connect with the lower. The gorilla, which 
is physically most like man, r< before the or 

outang when compared with the skull and teeth. 

The result of Vogt*s whole argument is: The present 
man derives his origin, not from similarly-formed fore- 
fathers, but equally as little from the present ape. The 
ape and the man originate from the same stork. 
Hence, the ape and man, when young, approximal 
Other in form. Moth are derived from a rel 
whose form of brain stands upon a lower scale than that 
of the present ape. From this uniform stock the ape and 
man have proceeded in their widely separated paths. 
This theory of progression, from the imperfect to the per- 
. by individual men and generations, through peculiar 
power and by the continuous exercise of the intellectual 
faculties, Yogt holds, is much more feasible than the idea 
of a degradation of humanity from an ideal ami m 
feet state to a more imperfect St 

Vogt claims that bit ween faith and knowledge there 
a world-wide and irreconcilable difference on the hist 
the creation, and that only science can rectify the 
of orthodox theology. He and his tinually 

decrying the doctrine of a fall, and hold up their hands 
ientific horror at the mention of man 

ner, whi< h, the} human dignit) 

ime men declare that man ami the brute have the 



LITERARY CHARACTERS. 253 

same common origin in nature. The strongest word that 
Augustine, Calvin, or Wesley ever said on human deprav- 
ity is not so degrading to the dignity of our race as the 
fundamental tenet in the materialistic school — the common 
source of man and brute. The renewed attention lately 
directed to Vogt, in consequence of his lectures, has sub- 
jected him and his school to the wit of the caricaturists. 
As a result the German comic papers abound in illustra- 
tions of his views. In one, for instance, he is represented 
as being seated in his study, hard at work, when the door 
is suddenly opened, and Mr. Gorilla walks in, dressed like 
a man, holding his hat in hand, and making a low bow to 
his honored friend, thanking him for having given him 
and the rest of his race their true position in science and 
before the world. In another caricature a man is repre- 
sented as going through a menagerie, when a little monkey 
suddenly sees him, recognizes him as an old friend, and 
stretches out his paw through the bars of the cage to give 
him a characteristic welcome. 

Vogt cannot complain of any injustice being dealt him, 
for he and his school are of the same thinking as a certain 
Berlin materialist, who, in closing a lecture a few years 
ago, said to his students : " Gentlemen, my next lecture 
will be devoted to proving to you, beyond a doubt, that 
monkeys are our first-cousins ! " 



254 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

IV. 
Adalbert Sid i i k. 

Although Austria is no longer regarded, since the war 
of 1 866, ;^ a part of Germany, the German tongue is spoken 
by the great controlling body of her people. The empire is 
not productive of strong literary characters, and only here 
and there one appears above the surface. The Austrian 
wliu lias taken the best position in poetry during the cen- 
tury, and the nearest approach that any part of Germany 
furnished to the sweet and quaint Jean Paul, is the 
late Adalbert Stifter. He was the son of a linen-weaving 
peasant, and was born in Bohemia on the 23d of Oct 
1806, just at the time when Austria, and indeed all Eu- 
rope, was reechoing with the triumphal songs of v 
After entering the University of Vienna as a student, he 
gave up first one and then another department, without 
having heart for any in particular. In this way he drifted, 
in turn, from jurisprudence to political economy, philoso- 
phy, history, mathematics, and natural science. 

When he left the university he was, of < . profi- 

cient in nothing. He became a tutor in the famib. 
Prince Metternich, meanwhile contributing poems to the 
Vienna " Zeitung." I >n the appearance of his poetical 
works his name became at once known to all Germany. 
The critical journals abounded in his ] , :u i be 

the subji ition in all literal;. -. Hut his 

sudden greatness was as much a surprise to himsc 

could have been to any one else. II 



LITERARY CHARACTERS. 255 

moment to think there could be merit in his achievements 
or worth in himself. 

Stifter was not at all adapted to society. Heavy, clum- 
sy, and grotesque in form, he was still more unattractive in 
company. He would never take part in conversation if he 
could avoid it, and it was indescribably painful to him to be 
thrown into the society of ladies. He always cut a sorry 
figure in the parlor. For example, at the time when he was 
tutor in Prince Metternich's family, and when his praise 
was in every body's mouth, some ladies who were calling 
on the princess eulogized his poems in the warmest terms, 
and expressed a desire to see him. The princess replied to 
them, that she would give them the opportunity of seeing 
a poet ; and on the appointed evening her drawing-room 
was merry enough with their lively conversation. They 
were all expectation, and scarcely knew how they should 
conduct themselves best in the presence of the great man 
whose overpowering presence they were expecting every 
moment. The door opened, and a tall, heavy, and slowly- 
moving figure entered. He stood a moment, bowed con- 
fusedly right and left, not knowing whether it was to the 
ladies or to the chairs and statues that he was paying his 
compliments. He dropped heavily into a convenient chair, 
and was as silent as the tomb of the Hapsburgs. The 
ladies took courage and talked to him, but only " yes " and 
" no " escaped his lips. The princess used every art to make 
the interview pleasant, but all to no avail. The ladies 
blushed, looked at each other, started new subjects, talked 
together, as if to relieve the stranger, and yet could do 
nothing to make him feel at ease, or engage him in con- 



256 LIFE IX THE FATHERLAND. 

atioa Suddenly the door opened again, and the 
if endowed with new life, sprang from his chair, 

darted out of the room with the velocity and vigor 01 a 
5l of prey, and was seen no more by the laughing eyes 
that had long looked in vain for a poet 
" Do y<»u call him a poet?" said the ladi 
•• \ iid Princess Metternich, " that is the ; 

whom you have praised so highly, and you now see how 
differently a man looks from his books. I hope you are 
cured of your fancy to see a poet, and ihat you will never 
desire again to see or have one in your society." 

The first edition of Suiter's works appeared in 
volumes, under the title of " Studien " — Studies, '1' 
IS 15-51,) which was followed by his " Hunte Sleine " — 

C ^ed Stories, (2 vols., Pesth, and subsequently 

l>v his "Nach dem Summer" — After Summer, (P< 
1S57.1 Both his poems and tales attracted universal at- 
tention, even in the exciting revolutionary yea 
and [849. He is admitted to be by far the best writer of 

fiction in Austria. His descriptions of natural scenerj 

the great charm of his works, and in his poems he fre- 
quently reminds the English reader 1. His 
main defect is his bringing inanimate nature too much 
into his characters, making his men sometimes more like 
a forest than human sociel 

In [849 h' 1 was appointed a School Counselor in Upper 
Austria He resided in the charming 
the Danube. If- s< I lom saw either teach* 

and only held his office h> name, and by the slend. 



LITERARY CHARACTERS. 257 

it yielded. It was his great joy to sit at his cottage win- 
dow, overlooking an angle of the river, and spend his 
hours between watching the picturesque scene before him 
and recording his thoughts on paper or his pictures on 
canvas. Stifter had a profound contempt for his own 
material existence ; his heart was in the world around, 
and his own lips and pen would have been the last to re- 
peat whatever shade of romance may now and then have 
colored his life. He died at Linz in January, 1868, and 
his body, covered with flowers and evergreens by kind 
hands, was followed to his grave overlooking his own be- 
loved and beautiful Danube. 



258 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 



CHAPTER IX. 

ODDITIES OF THE NEWSPAPER, HOME, AND GRAYE-YARD. 

WII EN the American in Germany becomes sufficient- 
ly conversant with the language to read the jour- 
nals, he is constantly surprised at the curious announce- 
ments. At first one is apt to regard them as ridicul 
J hit after a time, when the simplicity and beauty of the 
home life, and especially the strength of domestic attach- 
ments, are fully comprehended, they assume a more seri- 
ous character, and the appearance of provincial oddity is 
found to be due to the primitive habits and traditions 
the rural classes. These peculiarities, however, are rapidly 
passing away ; even during my residence in Germai 

marked decline was perceptible, and in a lew years many 

of these peculiarities will disappear entirely. 

The following may be regarded lair specimens of some 
of the oddities of the present newspaper, and the h 
and grave-yard of the olden tin,. 

The announcements of birth, marriage, and death are 
made often in large type, .1! 1 onsiderable length, an.! 
by the appropriate persons. The editor seems to regard it 
proper to insert the notices just as present! 

1 ' M rehill 

11.I .111 article in tin- N - 
hv ili.it I- • <«n ihc quainl 

in. in life, John I | I tin " \: .:: 

1 1 l 



NEWSPAPER, HOME, AND GRAVE-YARD. 259 

The following is from the " Riesengebirge Bote : " — 
" After an illness extending over many years, it has 
pleased God to take up my dearly beloved youngest daugh- 
ter, Anna, into his heavenly kingdom, where we shall 
inter her soulless corpse on Thursday next, at 9 o'clock. 

" Master carpenter J. Sch ." 

A Leipzig paper contained this singular obituary : — 
" To-day death tore away from us for the third time our 
only child. L. A. V. and Frau." 

The " Chemnitz Anzeiger " had the following notice : — 
" Last night at half-past three God took to himself, dur- 
ing a visit to the grandparents, our only little daughter 
Antonie, of teething. School-teacher S. and Frau." 

Matrimonial solicitations are not a purely American in- 
stitution, as will be seen from this proposition in the 
Vienna " Presse : " 

" A soldier, forty years old, sound and strong, is tired 
of living alone, and would like to marry. He wishes a 
wife, twenty-five years old, affectionate, talented, and finely 
educated. Since he possesses nothing but his position, a 
fortune is perfectly necessary. But since he is thoroughly 
opposed to making love for money, he takes this way of 
making his wants known." 

Such a topic, however, cannot be expected to submit 
always to the dull method of prose, as these lines from a 
Danzig paper show : — 



Four men, in the best of years, (not aged,) 
With gold and land, and never yet engaged, 
Who've never fished for any maiden fair, 
And whose acquaintance here has been too rare, 
12 



26o LIFE IX THE FATHERLAND. 

Who long to put them :ath love's soft swi 

seek in this — a very well known way — 
Here perfect strangers in this little 

brave, an ; ijirls, and j>reity, 

•tie wives to carry home from here ; 
Therefore we beg our readei :ear, 

But send ad >ft the ca 

With portrait, to this paper's printing-] lace ; 
Fortune with them we 
And hereby vow to act with strict discretion. 

But such overtures arc not confined to o . it' we 

may judge from this confessed expression in the Berlin 
" Intelligenz Blatt," of March, A young la ; . 

i exterior and pleasant appearance wishes to marry a 

ntleman of just the same way of thinkit. 

The festivities of the peasantry on matrimonial and 
funeral occasions generally involve considerable i 
The following statement relates to inhabitants of the l< 
put of the Valley of the Inn, in the Tyrolese Al: 

•• A peasanl left a clear fortune of three thousand four 
hundred florins, and the funeral and the death -feast 
four hundred ami thirty florins ; another left three thous 
florins, and \\v before and for interment amounted 

to three hundred and four florins : another left four thou- 
sand one hundred florins, the funeral and feast cost four 
hundred and twenty-four florins : a fourth left one thou- 
sand and thirty-six florins, and th I amounted 
hundred and twenty-five florins. It 
pai itively, with those who have to earn their daily 1)1 
vant inherited ne hun 
and twenty \\\r florins, and tin- I tin- funci 
in memory of the departed friend amount. ne hun- 



NEWSPAPER, HOME, AND GRAVE-YARD. 26 1 

dred and eleven florins, leaving but fourteen florins for 
himself." 

The " Rheinische Zeitung" furnished, in 1869, this 
testimony to the qualifications of an executioner of the 
eighteenth century : — 

" I hereby certify that the executioner of Tecklen- 
burg, Joest Heinrich Stolheust, brother of the executioner 
Jligermann, some time ago beheaded with skill and to my 
especial pleasure Heinrich Schuerkamp, who was impris- 
oned in the Hellenborg ; and immediately after, during 
the time my brother was syndicus, skillfully hanged a per- 
son named Rotter, above the masses ; also, that in simi- 
lar duties people will be well served by him. Signed the 
ninth day of June, 1709." 

The following scale of fees given to mediaeval execu- 
tioners of Darmstadt and Bessungen has appeared in a 
number of the German papers : — 

fl. kr. 

To boil a malefactor in oil 24 00 

To quarter a living person 15 00 

To execute a person with the sword 15 30 

To lay the body on the wheel 5 60 

To stick the head of the same on a pole. 5 00 

To rend a man into four parts 18 00 

To hang a man or any delinquent 10 OO 

To bury the body 1 00 

To burn a man alive 14 00 

To wait upon a torture, if so called 2 00 

To place in a Spanish boot 2 00 

To place a delinquent in the rack 5 00 

To put a person in the iron collar 1 oo 

To scourge one with rods 3 30 

To brand the gallows upon the back or upon the forehead or cheeks. 5 00 

To cut off a person's nose or ears . . . 5 00 

To lead a person out of the country I 30 



262 LIFE TN THE FATHERLAND. 

In addition to these cb; the executioner was gra- 

tuitously boarded, and usually received some douceurs 
besides. 

The Black Forest, Hart/ Mountains, and Ty: Ups 

are the chief districts where the doorways of the houses 
are superscribed with quaint mottoes. These are g 
erally in a pious vein. Here is one : — 

The Lord this dwellii it, 

And bless all who go in and out. 

Here is another, imploring Mary's help : — 

Mother of God, with g i inn 

Protect our beasts an a harm. 

This would suit any place as well as a house: — 

The love of God 's the fairest thing, 
The loveliest, this world can bri 

where, in vain 
1 1. uli lived ; n.>r may to h kin. 

Anil this also : — 

The help of man is small, 
alL 

1 [ere is a common one in northern Tyrol : — 

We build us b 

'I'll. 'Ugh here we may not long abide ; 

But for tin- | 

Lake do thought to build a i 

This is in the same sail strain : — 

I 

iic Ir.-m 11 — 



NEWSPAPER, HOME, AND GRAVE-YARD. 263 
The following is worthy any optimist : — 

The old folks to me they say 

The times grow worse from day to day. 

But I say no ! 

I put it so : 
The times are just the times we've always had, 
It is the people who have grown so bad ! 

This is less hopeful : — 

To please all men's a vain endeavor, 
And so it must remain for ever. 

The reason true 

I'll tell to you : 
The heads are far too many, 
The brains are far two few. 

The following, in two languages, is pithy. One pater- 
familias betrays a classic taste : — 

Qui sedificaturus est 

On the highway 

Debet stultum dicere 

Let as he may, 

Optat mihi omnis 

What he will, I don't care, 

Opto ei 

Just the same to a hair. 

The following has a pardonable smack of egotism : — 

Zura Stainer this house we call ; 
He who built it, roof and wall, 
Is Hans Stoffner by name, 
Full-handed, and of worthy fame. 

It is difficult to tell whether piety or pelf predom- 
inates in this : — 

I love the Lord, and trust his promise true ; 
I make new hats, and dye the old ones too. 



264 LIFE IN Till-. FATHERLAND. 

I the inn mottoes runs thus : — 

Come within, and sit the* down : 
II cash ?. be off full soon ! 

le within, dear guest, I pray, 
If thou hast wherewithal to pay. 

An old inscription in Upper Silesia runs thus : — 

1 have builded as I pleased. Let the envious man enter. If he 
dislike my style of building, no matter — my house is all the better for 
what it has cost me. 

Another gives a landlord's taste : — 

The kind of guest that I i 

Will have a friendly talk ; 
Will eat and drink and pay his score 
. then away will walk ! 

This from Lower Saxony has a touch of selfishness: — 

If your purse is filled with gold 
mr entrance hi 
ed be your going out 
It you pay your win, and beer. 

Inscriptions, however, are not confined to private dwell- 
ings or humble inns, but are met with over fountains and 
other public places. In my daily walk around the Anl 
at Frankfort, I used to pass a large pump, surmounted by 
a huge bust of a laughing Bacchus that bent beneath his 
burden of grapes, which bore this selfish couplet :— 

I d to US may mir drinking I 

The water to you, the wine to me. 

The quaint and simple methods of recording on the 
graves the manner iii which the departed had died. 
ver) familiar objects to pedestrian through the 1 

retired pai is ol the I F01 instance, n< M 



NEWSPAPER, HOME, AND GRAVE-YARDS. 265 

celebrated center of the Tyrolese grape cure, this epitaph 
is inscribed on a tablet which bears the picture of a man's 
head peeping out from under an avalanche, and a little 
Tyrolese scampering off to the left : — 

Here died Martin Kausch: 
The avalanche came and rolled 
Upon his body, and made him cold 
Also, J6rg under it was bound, 
But to-day is lively and sound ! 

Near by is another grave, over which is a tablet repre- 
senting the death of a woman by being run over by a 
heavily-laden wagon, with the words : — 

Here died Marie Wiegl, who 

Was mother and seamstress of children two. 

The following is found in the heart of the mountains. 
A picture, painted in glowing colors on the smooth face 
of a rock, represents a furious ox running his horns into 
a man, with this result : — 

By the thrust of ox's horn 

Came I into heaven's bourne ; 

All so quickly did I die, 

Wife and children leave must I ; 

But in eternity rest I now, 

All through thee, thou wild beast, thou ! 

Among the newer inscriptions in Austria is the follow- 
ing epitaph over the grave of the common goods-carrier 
between St. Gilgen and Salzburg. He went by the name 
of the " St. Gilgen Bote," and died in 1869: — 

Here rests in God, 

The dead St, Gilgen Bote ; 

To him be gracious, Lord, 

As he would be 

If he were Thou, 

And Thou St. Gilgen Bote ! 



266 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

The posting of lampoons in public places is alwa-. 
very hazardous business in monarchical countries. If the 
perpetrator is discovered, the least punishment is impris- 
onment. The following example will be of interest to 
some future Austrian Macaulay. During the reign of the 
reforming Emperor Joseph II. the following was found on 
a wall : — 

A friend of arms, 
A foe to prii 

A hypocrite 
Our Kaiser is ! 

The Emperor, to catch the author, caused it to be torn 
down, and this to be put in its place : — 

The first is true. 

The second plain ; 

Of need the third , 

And to the author fifty du< :ue. 

But the trap failed, as is shown by this answer, which 
appeared on the following day : — 

l iur are we — 

Ten, ink, paper, and I ; 

I li other we shall not betray, 

So the Kaiser his ducats may \ 






IV. 

GERMANY IN FIGHTING MOOD. 



12* 



A »pai f near two hundred and ten yean — so Ions ha> I -tood at bay with 

Borne! Not the 8amnlte, nor the repu - . :ior Gaul, >. 

Parmlan, has given such frequent lessons to the Boaun people. Thepowercifl - i 

formidable as Oerman liberty. Tl at their triumphs over 

Oaibo, Cassias, Bcaaras A-arellus, BervUlus < Kaolins — all . 

taken prisoners. With them the repnblio lost Sve consular armies; and siuw that time, In 

.a of Augustus, Varus perished with his Utreo legions. Caius Marius, it is tr 
feated the Germans In Italy; Julius Ceasar made thera retreal from • 
berios, and German leas overpowered them In i!i'.-ir own country; but how *1 did 

those victories cost us I The mighty pre 

riod an interval of pea 
ami the civil wars that followed, they stormed ••ur legions in their winter-quartet 
planned the conqui We did, indeed, force thorn I it from that 

time » hat baa been om- advantage 1 We hat e triumphed— bat 1 1 

T \. : . 



Bfl brausst iin Bill rliall, 

- nwerdtgekllrr and WogenpraU, 
Zuui Bhetn, ram Bhetn, mm deataehan Bbain; 

Wer « ill dc - 

Lteb Vaterland magat ruhi_- - 
• aterland magat rohlg - 

i • steht and trm die w.i.ir. d 
Jteht und ireu die \\ '.. 



WAR A BUSINESS IN EUROPE. 269 



CHAPTER I. 

WAR A BUSINESS IN EUROPE. 

WAR is the normal state of the continental nations. 
The total ordinary expenditure of the German 
empire is about ninety million dollars, and the army gets 
seventy-two million dollars of this ! Germany, Russia, 
Austria, and France live as if fighting were their only 
mission. Look, for instance, at the quick, but strictly- 
professional way in which those two mighty peoples, the 
Germans and French, went to searching for each other's 
throats in 1870. As I read the papers, I had continually 
before me the image of two great bears, which threw 
themselves on their haunches in a trice, and went to hug- 
ging each other to death. At the outbreak of hostilities, 
both countries were as well supplied with all the material 
of war, requisites for wounded and sick included, as we 
were after we had been fighting the South two years. As 
to men, they must have begun pretty much where we left 
off. There was no feeling the popular pulse, as with Lin- 
coln ; no evidence that either monarch depended alone on 
the sympathy of the masses for his success. France 
expected every thing of her historical army, and Prussia 
looked to hers and those of her noble sister States, to 
fight and win as surely as she herself had done at Konig- 
gratz. On both sides the soldiers had been trained in 
peace for their work ; the numerous arsenals had not 



270 



LIFE IN THE FATHERLAXD. 



known what it was to have a hammer idle, <>r a fire extin- 
guished ; ami, - the tOCSin sounded wai 
of railway-cars were thrown into an almost unbroken 
train to bring these disciplined f< e \>> fa< s the 
Rhine. 

Notwithstanding the constant j immei 

• it' troops there, and the coloring that standing 
armies give to every branch of business, and to all forms 
of social life, I never knew before what sort of a th : 

■ standing army really is. In whatever country you 
find it, it is as one great and thoroughly trained soldier, 
fully supplied with every necessity at the nation's cost ; for 
whom harvests bend and mills grind, without his taking 
his hand from his smooth musket; obliged t<> ignore the 
rights of household and the high joy of 
his natural tastes, standing with weapon ready to level at 
another man in exactly his condition, with only different 
uniform or language, each drawing about eighteen cents 
for his daily wages, and both representing n 
ing all the while the most exquisite civil.: 
splendor each other's courts, decorating each other's citi- 
zens with all manner of titles of nobility, and each - 
in the other a giant, and warily waiting to take ad\ 
o! the bruise in the heel, or the unhelmeted spot in the 
,iead. The army stands, but the natioi 

. with which the Prussian army is mobili 
is marvelous. To-night you leepinj mor- 

row you .ue <|t;.u tered with t: 

In is<><> the whole regular army, and the i the 

militia, v i the march to Austria in less than 



WAR A BUSINESS IN EUROPE. 271 

weeks, and in the late war with France the German troops 
were on the Rhine in twelve days. Any fortnight Prus- 
sia can have seven hundred thousand troops on the Rhine, 
the Vistula, or the Adige. The method of mobilizing is 
thus described by Archibald Forbes : — 

The mobilization machine grinds its grinding in this wise. The 
whole country is divided into districts, in the central city of each of 
which are the head-quarters of the army corps recruited from that 
district. Thence is sent forth the edict for mobilization to the towns, 
the villages, and the quiet country parishes. The authorities there 
make out individual summonses, appointing day and place for the 
gathering, and these are left at the "respective places of abode" of 
the reserve men. Max has married, and children have begun to tod- 
dle around his modest table. He is in the midst of his harvest. Carl 
is to be married next week ; he has bought his humble plenishing, and 
the priest or the minister has been spoken to. Hans is just entering 
into partnership ; he has built new premises, and his presence may be 
essential to make the spoon— his absence will spoil the horn. Heinrich 
is on the eve of emigrating. His traps are bought, and his ticket is 
paid for. But the burgomaster's clerk, or the orderly corporal, comes 
round one pleasant summer evening, and serves on one and all a cer- 
tain bit of paper. Max, when he reads it, growls "Donner wetter," 
and actually lets his pipe out in the dismal pause that follows its peru- 
sal. Carl walks off with it to his sweetheart, and there is a blubber- 
ing match. But when the appointed day arrives, Max and all the rest 
come to the front — genuine children of the Fatherland. Max leaves 
the harvest in statu quo, kisses his Gretchen, and wishes her well 
in all her troubles, slobbers the bairns, and strides off to the mus- 
ter — the wallet on his shoulder, into which Gretchen has crammed a 
couple of shirts, a lump of schwarz brod, a few slices of schinken, 
and a coil of fearfully and wonderfully made sausages — a little unac- 
customed water in his eye, and a queer lump in his bare brown throat. 
Carl puts off his wedding indefinitely, and war becomes his mistress, 
vice the other fraulein, superseded for the time being. Heinrich 



LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

atriation, perhaps to enrich the soil of France wit 
tain phosphat product of the d< Hans 

n business and partner (an "exempt " let one ho; 
take their course; he for the lime has other fish I The con- 

tinent of the village, duly called over and found complel 
off toward head-quarters. By the way it meets other continj 
finally, as the rendezvous is reached, the several ,ts make 

quilt- a procession in traversing the si 

nized what a pure den ian army. 

In the same file walk the laboring man and . son, the 

fanmr's buy and the banker's clerk. And if you follow them till they 
their uniform, it is likely enough that you will find the labor- 
ing man, who already has his medals on his br 
Stripes round his throat, and the petty centuri his quo: 

superior, to whom i. 'Do this, and he doeth it.'* 

I m the rapid transition from peace to war I had an 
unpleasant experience. When the duel i i broke 

out, my domestic group were at 11 watering place 

on the Belgian i oast, whither we had -one I a while 

before making the up-country English tour. It was only 
a week .since we had left Frankfort, and barely a wh: 
of war was heard. Al Brussels, which is only a little Pi 

the people were in feverish excitement over an utter : 

elty — the candidacy of Prince Leopold for the Spanish 
throne. Finally, the news came that the candidacy had 
been withdrawn, and that France had the 
-Mat diplomatic vii I With the popular 

ieemed to think the raal led 

From Brussels we went ent and Bi , and then to 

chat mini; little II J ' After a I 

♦ " M \ I 



IV A R A BUSINESS IN EUROPE. 273 

of real war, and we hastened homeward, though forewarned 
of long detentions and all possible inconveniences. 

What passed under our observation, on the journey to 
Frankfort, was in direct contrast with the ordinarily quiet 
and unobstructed traveling on the continent, and with 
the peaceful life we had so lately witnessed by all the way- 
sides, and conclusive withal as to the healthy and universal 
enthusiasm of Germany in her hour of trial. Every Bel- 
gian I talked with, with one exception, sympathized with 
France. " If you withdraw from your neutrality," I said 
to one living near the Luxemburg frontier, "what side 
will you take ? " 

" Perhaps France, but never Prussia," was his answer. 

And it was one that expressed the result of about all 
my conversations with Belgians, both on the coast and 
inland. But what wonder ? Belgium is really a mere 
colony of France, speaks the same language, worships the 
same " Holy Virgin," and has the same traditions. 

The cars from Brussels to Cologne were crowded to 
suffocation. They were filled with Germans hurrying 
home from Belgium, France, and Great Britain, to take 
their place in the army as true sons of the Fatherland. 
They were at first quite reticent, but as we neared the 
Prussian frontier they became voluble, denounced Napo- 
leon's pretensions, and lauded old Germany to the third 
heavens. There was not the slightest difficulty in cross- 
ing the frontier into Prussia. Not a word was said about 
a passport, and a custom-house officer told me that I need 
not unlock my satchel. After reaching Cologne, our 
heavier luggage was dispatched almost as speedily. At 



274 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

Aix-la-Chapelle, whore that old warrior-king Charlemagne 

sleeps in the historical and venerable cathedral, far beyond 
the reach of the strife and din of warfare, the self-foi 
ting and exultant patriotism of the people called to mind 
similar scenes I had frequently witnessed in New Jersey 
and New York during our late war. One lady in our car 
regarded it an honor that nine soldiers had been quartered 
in her house the night before. She expressed herself 
ready for every sacrifice, and rejoiced that King William 
was calling on all classes to unite in repelling the French 
invaders. The soldiers exhibited by every word a healthy 
confidence in the triumph of Germany. They spoke intel- 
ligently of the points at issue, and felt that if the war did 
nothing else, it would unite Germany — as, indeed, it did 
in greater measure than ever before. 

A good proportion of the private soldiers were highly 
intelligent and cultivated. No wonder. Every class was 
called out, up to forty years of age. No money COllld buy 
a substitute ; you would not know where to find one. The 
substitutes had to go themselves. The learned circles 
win broken up ; all educational institutions were for the 
moment forgotten. The professors vied with the students 
in hurrying under the fla 

We reached Cologne, after many delays, late at night 
At first there seemed no prospect of finding a hotel that 

could accommodate us, SO utterly filled was the city with 
soldiers and officers. I think it was. at tile fourth 01. 

which we applied that we first gained admittance. A short 
sol. i was all the bed 1 had in the third-rate inn. but h.r. 
adjusted myself t.> it as well as possible, I comforted my- 



WAR A BUSINESS IN EUROPE. 275 

self with the hope that I would have better accommoda- 
tions the next night. A sweet delusion ! The next night I 
was destined to find in Mayence only the floor for my bed ! 
A few nights in that style would have accustomed me to 
the campaign and all, without standing on the muster-roll 
or firing a needle-gun. Of course, we could not leave Co- 
logne without visiting the Cathedral again. I had never 
seen so many worshipers in it before. Soldiers of all grades, 
the relatives and friends accompanying them, and little 
school-children, with their book-knapsacks on their backs, 
were drawn thither in the early morning by the sad part- 
ings — yes, the numberless possible sacrifices of the war. 
The following day I witnessed similar scenes in the May- 
ence Cathedral, whither I had wandered before breakfast. 
As all regular steamboat travel on the Rhine was broken 
up, we took the only train of cars running from Cologne 
to Mayence. The time should have been four or five 
hours, but the delays lengthened these out to ten or eleven. 
The whole way was literally through a mass of soldiers 
hurrying to the front. We could not run over a few 
miles before reaching trains carrying soldiers, guns, and 
all the requisites for a campaign. Then our train, while 
it was switching off, or backing, in order to pass them, 
would be overtaken by other military trains. At one time 
we became entangled in a perfect network of cars, and it 
was very clear for some time that nobody knew how to 
get our train out again. Here and there we passed great 
piles of broken cars — the wrecks of collisions — and learned 
that several deaths of soldiers and railway workmen had 
occurred within a few days, owing to the irregularity of 



276 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

the trains, and the extraordinary draught made upon every 
body and thing connected with the road. This road — and 
the same may be said of all the German roads running 
tlic direction of the scene of war, all being government 
property — was in a moment turned into a great military 
artery for conveying the country's very life-blood to the 
needy extremity. 

We reached Frankfort the next day, but had to con- 
clude our journey by carriage, as the cars stopped 
long distance from the city. The citizens had become 
thoroughly Prussian within a short time ; for until the war, 
nothing had been able to obliterate their gru linst 

Prussia for absorbing their " Hanse city" during the 
Prusso-Austrian war of 1866. 

I found every department of life transformed. I'n 
tainty and motion were the new laws. My bills, which 
should not have come in for settlement before Jan 
1 87 1 , were presented by breakfast time, by special mes- 
sengers. My coal merchant asked me. on my orderil 
winter supply of coal, if I would pay cash on delivery? It 
was something so new that 1 looked at him in snip 
not knowing at first what he meant, when a tinge mounted 
to his face, and he bun-led out, hesitatil ' first for 

something to say : " You know — in these war times — one 
doesn't know what — you know — things arc so uncertain." 
"O! yes, 1 understand. You are quite right" 11«- felt 
easj again alter .1 time, but his asking an old customer if 
the cash would be forthcoming, fairly made the ] 
tion i"ll from him. It was to him . it an undei 

ing as foi old \ r on Moltke to figure out the placin [ 



WAR A BUSINESS IN EUROPE. 277 

enough Germans to chew up a French division. Every 
thing; was in motion. People talked faster than I could 
have believed possible. The blood fairly boiled in the 
German Michael's veins. People walked twice as quickly 
on the Zeil as they had done before the Spaniards had 
blistered their throats trying to pronounce Hohenzollern. 
Our file of street-sweepers, who so generally threatened 
to fall asleep over their work, now plied their brush be- 
soms as nervously as if they were sweeping an army of 
Turcos and Spahis into Lethe. 

At the Biirgerverein, our city reading-room, where I 
dropped in at five every afternoon, the people read the 
papers with at least double their usual speed. I always 
expected to find about a dozen familiar corpulent dozers 
here and there in the easy-chairs, with spectacles and pa- 
pers dropped beside them on the floor ; but I did not see 
one taking a siesta, to the best of my knowledge, after the 
fatal words that opened the brazen throats. Those ven- 
erable and usually torpid burghers were now galvanized, 
and flew from one journal to the other, devouring and 
digesting all as rapidly as a New York merchant will 
finish his morning paper. Indeed, the whole land seemed 
to have aroused as from a dream. There was bustle, life, 
quick perception, just as with us during the first three 
months of our war. All Germany was now living more, 
thinking more, doing more in one day than usually in two. 
The mighty energy that pervaded her victorious army 
passed into all the people it left behind to watch its steps, 
mourn its losses and rejoice over its triumphs. 



278 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 



CHAPTER II. 

(I! RMAN LITTERATEURS IN UNIFORM. — THE LANDWEHK 

WHENEVER war breaks out in Germany there is 
as much strain made upon the literary class as on 
any other. Many a busy pen must give way to swi.nl 
and needle-gun. German military law knows little dis- 
tinction or class of persons ; and the peasant fights by 
the side of the tradesman, author, and prince. Every man 
in the land must serve in the regular army from his 
twentieth to his twenty-eighth year, and no substitute is 
allowed. After having served out in the regular army, he 
is enlisted in the Landwehr for five years longer, where 
he is subject to call at any moment. When his time is 
out in the Landwehr, he is enrolled in the Landsturm 
until fifty. Here he is called out only in case of invasion. 
The slightest disability exempts from duty — fur Germany 
is economical as well as military, and wants not a 
expensive incubus in her army. In the late war, how- 
ever, few questions were asked, for it was a time 1 

Enlistments came in freely from those whom the 

ex iminers had declared unfit for duty, and they were 
cepted. None were more eager and patriotic than the 
literary men — just as had 1 een the case in the War of 
Liberation, as told with peculiar interest by Steffens in 
his "Story of my Car er. M The universities wen- uni- 
illy ablaze with patriot itement The doors were 



GERMAN LITTERATEURS IN UNIFORM. 279 

closed, and such students as were not allowed to enter 
upon military duty, associated themselves, with their 
professors, to go upon the battle fields to serve under the 
Red Cross banner of the Sanitary Corps. A professor in 
the University of Breslau attached the following notice 
to the door of his auditorium just after the war broke 
out : " Since the gentleman students have something bet- 
ter to do than to run to lectures, I hereby declare my 
lectures closed ! " 

Of the pleasant relations of professor and student in 
warfare, the following account of a correspondent in the 
army gives pleasing witness : " It gave me great pleasure 
one evening to meet an old student friend, Dr. Meier, now 
Professor of Law in the University of Halle, upon the 
suspension bridge between Corney and Noveant. The 
Doctor could not bear to see all his students going away, 
and he joined them as a recruit. He now marches with 
the reserves of an Erfurt regiment toward Paris, and not 
long ago arrived in Corney, in advance of his regiment, 
in order to procure quarters for it. Along with him was 
a tall young lieutenant, who had exercised him in drill. 
These two shared their room with me. But how happy 
they were ! It was charming ! The best of the whole 
story was the good relationship existing between the 
young officer and the old recruit. • No, my dear Profes- 
sor, now I must carry your cow-foot (needle-gun) a bit for 
you ? You can't carry it any longer ! ' ' Excuse me, dear 
Lieutenant, that would be against all the rules of subor- 
dination.' Notwithstanding this, however, the young 
officer persisted in carrying the Professor's needle-gun, 



280 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

and listened intently to the legal wisdom that flowed from 
his old friend's lips. On the following morning Pr<»f< 
and Lieutenant helped each other in dressing and buck- 
ling on knapsacks and accouterments. They called every 
article by its classic name, and quoted with great gusto 
the very appropriate lines from " Wallenstein's Camp : " 

" Mit Tornister und Wehrgehang 
Schlieszt er sich an eine wui lige Meng." 

A few names will convey an idea of the authors who 
fell during the war. In Dr. Pabst, who was killed at 
Metz, Germany lost one of her most promising historians. 
He was still young, but had already accomplished much. 
While he was yet a student in the universities of Bonn. 
Berlin, and Gottingen, he wrote a "History of the Loi 
bardian Kingdom," which met with the most decided 
approval of the critics. He won his doctorate at Berlin, 
having written the treatise "De Ariberto II. Mediolanes 
primisque medii devi motibus popularibus." While th< 
he undertook at the same time the editing of Hirsch's 
"Jahrbiicher Heinrich's [V., M essentially supplementing the 
work by Ids own labors. After completing his university 
studies he devoted his principal labors to the " Monument* 
Germania Histori ." and much was expected from him 
for this work. He had a keen historical penetration, ami 
a thorough philological education. He undertook tlv 
animation of Italian historical sources, and was in b 
for the purpose of collecting material for lives of the 
Topes, when the war w.is declared by France lb- had 
already visited the Vatican, the principal libi 



GERMAN LITTERATEURS IN UNIFORM. 28 1 

Naples and Florence, and the cloister and city libraries 
of many other cities in Italy ; fortunately, a part of these 
labors is preserved, in the author's manuscript, in the Ber- 
lin Library. He lost no time in returning to Germany 
to join his regiment, where he was universally respected 
for his soldierly bearing and courage. lie left Berlin, it 
is said, with a heavy heart, having forebodings that he 
would never return. 

On the same battle field fell Dr. Julius Brakelmann, 
formerly a student at Berlin, twenty-six years of age, and 
a valued writer on French literature and art in the col- 
umns of the Augsburg "Allgemeine Zeitung." He went 
through the Bohemian campaign of 1866, and after that 
had resided in Paris until the war. A son of the cele- 
brated Oldenburg poet, Julius Mosen, fell in the same 
engagement. He was a spirited young man, and had 
entered the army as a volunteer. He left his mother in 
great distress ; she will be remembered by many for her 
almost superhuman devotion to her husband during the 
last painful years of his life. 

The battle at Resonville took away a promising young 
poet of Berlin, Paul Herth, known to many readers by his 
translation of Longfellow's " Evangeline " into German. 
His short career gave every promise that he would have 
become renowned in Germany. He was born in June, 
1842, at Golssen, and early devoted himself to the postal 
service. In his spare hours he engaged in the study of the 
modern languages, and with such zeal that in his twenty- 
second year he was master of nearly all the European lan- 
guages. He studied Sanscrit at the University of Breslau. 



LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

II I his chief attention to Spanish, Italian, S 

dinavian, and English literature, and became a 
contributor to the " Magazin fur 'lie Literatur d< 
lands," particularly on Swedish and Spanish literature. 
lie made the Danish campaign in [864, and the Bohemian 
in [866, returning from the field of I. an officer. 

lie belonged, in the German and French war, to the third 
Regiment of the Guards, in whose ranks he was struck 
b) two bullets, through the head and breast. He wrote 
numerous war songs, some of which have been published, 
while others are still in manuscript. His latest, entitled 
"Roses on the Battle Field," was published shortly bel 

his death. 

A well-known Saxon poet, Captain Adolph von Ber- 
lepsch, a member of the Dresden Literal. was 

also killed. The Trim ass Salm, whose heroic husl 
was likewise killed in the war, conveyed the b 
lepsch, her nephew, to the hereditary es iraily 

near Wesel. Berlepsch was a direct descendant of the 
knights who captured Luther, and conveyed him to the 
Wartburg Castle, where he translated tin- New L -lament, 

and passed by the name o| " Squin l 

An accomplished author on various Lieutenant 

Hoffman, also fell in tin- ranks, lie was one of the most 
venturesome and successful of the German litei imb- 

•f tin- T) rolese Alps. 

These feu cases will prove the high social ami inteil* 
ual standing of the German army. And I ".her 

proof, ti om a li\ ing lm^.n ofl I the 

b.uii edan, written in Sanscrit, with < the 



GERMAN LITTERATEURS IN UNIFORM. 283 

Rigveda. It is a curiosity. It reads as follows, and is 
dated Sedan, the 2d of September, 1870: — 

" Hxo mahayud abhavat. Catravah sarve nirjitah, sarva 
tesham sena maharaja ca soayam, baddhah. Tvashtar no 
vajram soaryan tataksha ; ahauma 'him soarvilau gicri- 
yanam (Rigveda, I, 32.) Aham sukucalo 'smi, yuddhe na 
mahad bhayam gato 'ham, yad etasmin kshetre suparvate 
padataya eva yoddhum caknuvanti, turanginas 'tu na. 
'rhanti. Mahatyam seoayam bhavatah cishyah." 

The following is the translation : " Yesterday was a 
great battle. The enemy were totally defeated ; their 
whole army, and the Grand King (Emperor) himself, 
taken prisoners. Tvashtar (Vulcan) forged for us the 
flaming thunderbolt. We beat the Ahi, (Python,) who 
crept away into his hole, (Rigv. 1, 32.) I am well ; in the 
battle I did not come into great danger, because in this 
very mountainous neighborhood only the foot soldiers are 
able to get well into the fight, not the riders." Von 
Thielemann, the author of this remarkable dispatch, is a 
doctor of laws, and in time of peace is judge in the Berlin 
Court of Appeals. He is a graduate of Leipzig, and, while 
there, was engaged in the study of the literature and lan- 
guage of the ancient Hindus. He made the campaign of 
1866. His interesting Sanscrit report, above given, was 
published in the " Spener Zeitung," of Berlin, and naturally 
created considerable interest. 

Besides Dr. Von Thielemann there were at least five 

other excellent Sanscrit authors in the Prussian army, 

namely : Drs. Thibaret, Goldschmidt, Goeke, Pischel, 

and Richard Kiepert. 
13 



284 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

The most of the literary men fought in the Landwehr. 
The Landwehr was made up largely of heads of families. 
The French soldier is bred to the business, and never 
thinks of a home. The German soldier has a home and 
a group about his table. Some have said that the school- 
house marked all the difference between the Germans and 
the French in the late war. I believe this to be a mis- 
take, and that domesticity, and not education, underlay 
the great issue. Archibald Forbes says : — 

We have an impression among us — and I confess I shared it — 
that he makes the best soldier who is the most of an enfant / 
Cut your soldier off from all civil associations — no matter if from all 
associations of civilization as well ; make the army his trade, the bar- 
rack-room his home, and alternate the canteen with the low public- 
house as his chosen haunt. JLet ev< ry douce civilian 1> >dy wag his 
head in a half-kindly, half-chiding way over the soldier, regard him 
as more or less God-forgotten, yet still a tine fellow in his way, and 
capital food for powder. Let the soldier accept this view of himself, 
drink his pay, wax his mustache, and swagger about the world in 
p ac ii ne — and in war? Oi course your reckless scapegrace, with- 
out a tie in the world, who carries his life in his hand, is just the mm 
to make a dashing charge, to cover himself with glory, to start the 
bells a-ringing and the park guns a-firing, and— to drink himself to 
death with the multitudinous p"ts which a temporarily proud and 
grateful 1 ivilian population pr< ss upon his acceptance. 

Why? Wherefore should a man fight any better because he 
disreputable scapegrace? YOU talk of a stake in the country basing 
a tendency to stimulate patriotism in civil life. Why should the - 

not have the same effect in military? Whether do the " tears 

fall and blind " the soldier most, when the band strikes up " Th 

I leave behind me," if she be an honest woman, a true wife, and the 

mother of his children, or some dirty garrison trull hardly troubling 

him off in her anxiety 10 make the acquaintance i'( his sue- 






GERMAN LITTERATEURS IN UNIFORM. 285 

cessor? In most of the printsellers' windows in London is an en- 
graving- representing a farewell between an officer and his wife, as he 
quits for foreign service. I often appreciated the true sentiment of 
Miliais' picture, yet nevermore so than during those early days when 
the mobilization mill was grinding. The husband, leaning from a car- 
riage window, stretches forth his hand, which the wife clasps in both 
of hers, gazing into his face in a speechless, yearning agony of part- 
ing. I witnessed the scene, with variations, dozens of times in town 
and country, in Rhineland. Now it was a sun-burnt woman with 
tanned cheeks, and deeper tanned hands, grim, thin-cheeked, and 
angular-featured, who gripped the hand of a slightly greasy, equally 
brown man in a blue slop, and boots slightly suggestive of small 
boats. But the look out of the eyes was the same as in the picture ; 
and the hussar officer had no fuller heart as the bell rang and the 
train started, than had the greasy landmann as he turned away with 
the broken muttered " Gott behiite dich," and pulled his cap over his 
eyes for a spell before he re-lit his pipe. Did the landmann fight any 
the worse, think you, because he had left behind him in the village 
the sunburnt frau and their young ones, than would your dashing 
devil-may-care, who goes jauntily away to the war with a laugh and 
a jeer ? I venture, for my part, to think not. * 

Early in the war the Prussian Government took meas- 
ures for the temporary support of the families and widows 
of the Landwehr; and the Crown Prince of Prussia issued 
a call for the founding of a fund for the support of the 
families of the killed and wounded soldiers. To show 
what "encumbrances" are attached to the Landwehr, we 
may add, that the second Prussian Regiment of the 
Guard, which was before Strasburg, left no less than 
seven thousand and three children at home ! In the early 
weeks of the war it was no unusual thing to see the Land- 

* " My Experiences of the War between France and Germany," vol. i, 
pages 18, 19. 



286 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

wehr men carrying and fondling their children through 
the streets to the front ; though now the Government has 
prohibited these scenes to be enacted in the rank 

There is a poem by Ferdinand Roch, which was set to 
music, and was very much sung in German}- during the 
war, which gives a true picture of the German Land well r- 
man's taking leave of home. It is entitled "The Land- 
wehrman's Departure :" — 

" And now, dear wife, 'lis time to part ; 

I hear the bugler's blast outside ; 
Do not despair; be strong of heart ; 

Hi 11 guard you well in evil tide ! 

" Give me once more the youngster here ; 

My darling boy, one farewell kiss ! 
But eight days did — the blow's severe 

That makes me go from thee like th 

"The little rogue, he's smiling, see ! 
I'll take that as an omen 1 night ; 
No matter where, his face shall be 
re me in the thickest tight ! 

" The blast again ! — well, take him now; 

Protect my wife and child, < > 1 ,ord ! 
The hit is hard — but here I vow, 

( in France shall fall my vengeance-sword ! 

" And if, my child, 1 come do m 

Thy mother thee will often tell, 
Among thai noble host I bore 

A soldier's part lor home — and fell ! 

"O! when will Cod bring on the day 
I li.it we shall lay our Standards down? 

Ala ' we hasten to the fray, 

But Vict'ry will our banners crown 



REVIVING THE OLD THEFTS. 287 



CHAPTER III. 

REVIVING THE OLD THEFTS. — GERMANS UNDER VICTORY. 

A PECULIAR feature of the war was the reviving 
of the old grudges of Prussia against France. One 
careful German went to calculating the expense to which 
the first Napoleon put Germany during his supremacy 
east of the Rhine, the levies he made on the towns 
through which he passed, and what not, and claimed that 
these, with compound interest, should be reclaimed by 
Prussia from France. Another move in the same direc- 
tion was of a more literary character. German librarians 
busily employed themselves in ascertaining what literary 
and art treasures of value, that formerly belonged to Ger- 
many and were taken to France during the various cam- 
paigns, should be claimed back at the conclusion of peace. 
The Augsburg "Allgemeine Zeitung" called attention to 
a very remarkable work, dating from the twelfth to the 
fourteenth centuries, containing the poetical productions 
of one hundred and forty poets of that period, — kings, 
counts, knights, and singers without rank, — all known 
under the name of Minnesingers. The work is a clearly 
written parchment manuscript, with decorations and min- 
iature paintings, some scenes being of great beauty and 
vividness of color, and includes the most of the poems of 
the Minnesingers, among whom are mentioned the Em- 
peror Henry XII., King Conrad the younger, (Conradina,) 



288 LIFE IN TJI1-: F. I THERLAND. 

King Wenzel of Bohemia, the Margrave of Meissen, Wal- 
ter von der Vorclweide, Wolfram von Eschenbach, the 
Tanhuser, Meister Gotfrit of Strasburg, Meister Conrad 
of Wurzburg, Heinrich von Osterdingen, and many others. 
The work is said to have been written by a certain 
R diger Manesse, ''whilom of the Council of Zurich." 
It surpasses in extent and beauty all similar works trans- 
mitted to Germany from its forefathers, and forms a testi- 
mony of the ancient German intellect than which, outside of 
the cathedrals, the land has nothing greater. The history 
of the famous work is given as follows : It first of all went 
into possession of the Swiss poet-family Sax, of St. Gall. 
A certain Johann Philipp von Sax was, in 1580, Doctor 
and Privy Councilor, as well as General of the Elector 
of the Palatinate, and from his widow the work reached 
the Elector's Library at Heidelberg. In 1623 Tilly took 
away the whole library, the manuscript in question along 
with it ; the collection first went to Rome, and later, 
Napoleon I. took it to Paris. In 18 15 a greater part of the 
library was returned to Heidelberg. But this portion 
was retained. It was again brought to light by the Swiss 
scholar, Bodmer, in 1748; a copy of parts was then taken; 
in 1758 a prettj pomplete copy was made, and the work 
printed. Subsequently, Frederick Henry von der Hagen 
had correcl copies, with many of the pictures, printed, in 
four large quarto volumes. Hagen spent many years 

of his lite upon the work. In the year [823, and SU 

quently, till 1838, he spent several months in Paris, in 
getting up a fac-simile of the manuscript, and having the 

pictures faithfully copied. 



REVIVING THE OLD THEFTS. 289 

At the peace settlement between Germany and France, 
in 1 8 1 5, King Frederick William III. of Prussia, who took 
great interest in the work, endeavored to get possession 
of the manuscript for Germany ; but he was only able to 
get permission for German scholars to have access to it 
at all times. The city of Breslau, which claims one of the 
Minnesingers whose songs are contained in the manu- 
script in question, (those of Duke Henry of Pressela,) 
offered to exchange old French works for it ; but this was 
refused. It has remained in France to this day, and an 
Augsburg journal thinks it a favorable time now to claim 
it back again. "The work is for us," it says, "invaluable : 
for it is the reflection of the German spirit at the time of 
its greatest development of power. It is to the German 
nation what the old family Bible and ancestral paintings 
are. to the family." Not every one will see the force of 
this argument. If all the European nations were to give 
up the literary treasures which they have taken from each 
other by force, there would be no end to reclamations. 
How much would the Royal Library in every European 
capital have to part with, no one knows. 

Nothing during the war surprised me more than the 
calm and temperate spirit in which success was received. 
The first 'victory or two created no joy whatever, but 
rather a subdued cheerfulness, with a confidence in the 
further good behavior of leaders and army. We were com- 
ma: home from church when the official news of the vie- 
tory at Woerth had gotten well spread. The satisfaction, 
suppressed for ten days, was now finding expression, for 
even the German cannot conceal his gladness when under 



290 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

more than three successive victories, and particularly 
such as those over France and a Napoleon! 

Whole families were out together; even multitudes of 
little children, clad in their christening robes and borne in 
their nurses' arms, had been brought forth to join in the 
jubilee. The black and white flag of Prussia, and the flag 
of the North German Confederation, were streaming from 
all the public buildings and theclumsv market-boats along 
the quays of the Main. Little knots of young men were 
devouring King William's last grateful and prayerful dis- 
patch to Queen Augusta. Did men, true children of I 
barossa, had crept out of their easy-chairs and down the 
crooked stairways, and rested on theii • every 

and then to drink of the overflowing gladness. There 
were no deafening vociferations, not a sound loud or harsh 
enough to grate upon a child's ear. There was no evi- 
dence that beer or a stronger beverage had a hand in the 
joy. It was just the most quiet, but not less hearty, way 
of treating victory I had ever seen. 

Hut, of course, the battles terminating with the surren- 
der at Sedan of eighty thousand <>f the enemy, with army 
material and commanders to match, brought out the peo- 
ple again. This time the holiday lasted about tv. 
culminating on tin- evening of the second. A placard, 

without signature, stood on all the street-corners on the 
ond day: "All patriotic citizens are ex illu- 

minate this evening." And the illumination came — n 
every house, but ^\ about even third one 1 Id's 

house was well ablaze, and people naturally thought of it. 
ami looU-d at it the longer, !■ \ insid 



REVIVING THE OLD THEFTS. 231 

reflections going the rounds of the German papers in rela- 
tion to his patriotism. He was absent from his place at 
the extra session of the German Parliament to provide 
means for carrying on the war ; but afterward he and his 
family paid special attention to the wounded. His daugh- 
ter provided for a whole hospital. The monuments of 
Goethe and Schiller, and of the first printers, were cen- 
ters of rejoicing and pyrotechnics. The fireworks were 
not of the noisy kind, nothing louder than the smart whiz 
of a rocket. German ears will not endure any thing like 
firecrackers, except on the battle field, and then a pande- 
monium on earth is their very element. Processions of 
juvenile King Williams and Bismarcks, carrying Chinese 
lanterns, filed up and down the streets. It was indeed a 
general jubilee, perhaps unequaled since Waterloo, or even 
the last of the imperial coronations in Frankfort, so beau- 
tifully pictured by Goethe in his "Aus meinem Leben." 

What would naturally strike an American most favor- 
ably, was the perfect good taste and quiet of the celebra- 
tion. There was no intoxication or roystering. A New 
York gentleman, overlooking the busiest square that night, 
said to me : " Why, if this were Paris, the people would 
be standing on their heads from sheer delirium of joy." 
There was really less excitement, but no less real re- 
joicing, than in an American village on Independence 
Day. So one can wish his friends of weak nerves no 
better fortune than to be in Frankfort, or some other 
German city, the next time the world gets glad over the 
capture of a live emperor and his whole army. 
18* 



292 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 



CHAPTER IV. 

HELP FOR THE SOLDIERS. 

N our war the Christian and Sanitary Coramiss : ons 
took shape wry slowly. But all Germany, 

as the late war was declare 1, fell into tv. 

the fighters and their helpers. The professional nun 

institutions immediately assumed a military form, and the 

voluntary enlistments from both 1 from day 

to day. Even boys of fourteen joined the Sanitar) 

lint-picking became the fashion in the thatched 

and the most luxuriant drawing-room. The rece] 

the wounded at the stations was always an ovation. The 

densi of enthusiastic spectators interfered often 

with the regular work of the corps, and the bravos fairly 
deafened one. German and French received alike friend- 
ly treatment here. The railway stations had supplies 
bandage-linen, drinks, f 1. beds— every thin--, indee 

wounded man needed— and ) as the train an 

with the suffering, you saw physicians and ni f all 

hurrying to do all that could he done for their relief. 

Every one engaged in the of the sick and woun 

was distinguished by a little white ban with a 

cross in the middle- of it. around tl. the 

e, bow. Volunteers were received for a loi 
time - '" opportunity. In the battle oi Wo 

some noble German women w< 



HELP FOR THE SOLDIERS. 293 

the thick of the fight, and drag the wounded into the 
rear, where death might be retarded or prevented by their, 
timely aid. 

The voluntary contributions for the sick and wounded 
did not amount, in individual cases, to as large sums as 
occurred in our war, but the number of smaller offerings 
was much larger. A thaler or half thaler, or even less, 
was the rule. 

All names and contributions were published in the 
journals, and given the widest publicity. The poor gave 
as much as they could, and showed where their sympathies 
lay. All were touched by gifts from abroad, though not 
one of them went quite so far into their hearts as the mill- 
ion dollars from their countrymen in St. Louis. But all 
tokens of American sympathy touched them profoundly. 
The German looks upon the American as his brother, 
and the future of America as in a great sense his own. 

In the German army there is no such an organized and 
powerful measure for the spiritual care of the troops as 
corresponded with the Christian Commission in our late 
war. If the war had lasted as long, or even a fourth as 
long, as ours did, something of that kind might have been 
expected ; but much opposition would have had to be 
overcome before making the whole army accessible to 
practical Christian literature by a great agency of this 
character. A considerable part of the public press would 
have opposed it ; the prevalent theology was, and is, in 
conflict with such measures ; the mass of the clergy would 
have stood aloof with indifference, if not with opposition. 
One of the German papers, a real molder of German opin- 



294 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

ion, the " Weser Zeitung " of Bremen, contained these words, 
against tract distribution to the .soldiers: - We saw tracts 
in the hands of some; these had been slipped into their 
hands on the way. They contain thoughts on death. 
Now, this is certainly very foolish, since it is all-important 
that just these people should be kept alive, and, unqu 
tionably, more cheerful reading would have a much better 
effect than such sermons to people who have already faced 
death." 

This effusion found, however, a speedy antidote in the 
columns of another Bremen paper, the " Courier." 

Much was done in an individual way for the spiritual 
interests of the German soldiers. Religious societi 
within the State Churches accomplishe i what their means 
allowed The influence of the various denominations out- 
side the Slate Churches was most salutary. 

The most gigantic religious agency, however, in behalf 
"I the German army, was the British and Foreign Bible 
Society. No barriers were placed in its way, for does n I 
every German ruler know that his country owes every 
thin g >" ,1k ' Bible ? X.. sooner had the war broken out 
than the British .md Foreign Bible Society gaveord 
itsagent in Paris, M. de Pressense, to put a fon j. 

porteursin the field, and supply the French army with 
Testaments. Similar instructions were given to tin- S 
ciel ent in Germany, the Rev. G. P. Dai 

divided his time between Frankfort and Berlin, and 
these twocities, with Colo 

of operation. It was • undertaking to supplj 

arm ) "' nearly two millions ,,f men already, or soon t.. in-. 



HELP FOR THE SOLDIERS. 295 

under marching orders. But the Bible distributers went 
to work in good earnest, distributing to the troops on their 
passage through the cities toward the front. Here are 
some of the experiences of the colporteurs, in their own 
words : — 

" On Sunday, the Sixty-first Regiment of the line 
passed through Berlin, and halted for a few hours. With 
longing hearts they inquired for the Bible-colporteurs, 
but found none. Just as they were about to leave, one 
soldier took out a worn, yellow printed leaf from his 
pocket, and, holding it up high, said to his friends and 
relatives from whom he was taking leave : ' Look, this is 
a leaf of an old Bible ; no one has come to give us God's 
word, and this is the only portion of it with which we 
march into battle, and perhaps to decth.' Since the in- 
cident occurred, we have trebled the number of our men, 
and now, if we can help it, no company of any regiment 
passing through shall march to battle, perhaps to death, 
with only a torn leaf of the Bible as their only consolation 
in the thick of danger. 

" The work takes place under the most unfavorable cir- 
cumstances that can possibly be imagined. The troops 
have often not a quarter of an hour to stay, and then there 
is a rush for the meat and drink which they receive for 
nothing ; and it is in the midst of this hurry and scuffle 
that we have to ask them to buy God's word ; and yet in 
one single day, among regiments which I could only ad- 
dress in this way, I sold more than three hundred copies. 
The principal difficulty is to catch the attention of a few 
men to begin with ; when this is done, they show the 



LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

book l " !i id the good news abroad, and 

then the difficulty is, on my part, to supply their wants. 
I do not mean to say that I am never rebuffed, but such 
is my general experience. One ni| clock, 

I was walking not far from the Potsdam Railway Station, 
and observed a gathering of troops. ' It would be a ni 
li)iil - I said to myself, 'to supply these people with 
I i >d's word.' No sooner was it thought than it was 
I hurriedly fetched m) books, which r had left for such 
surprises in a neighboring house. 1 was in time to catch 
some of them before they had got into the can 
Although they were burdened with heavy knapsacks, 
and it had become so dark that they could not see what 
they were buying, I kept selling even alter the train u 
in motion. [ heard that other trains were I pass, [hur- 
ried to the depot at ten o'clock at ni 1 1 
and remained at work till midnight On this evening I 
sold two hundred and fifty copi 

1 he plan found to work best in distributin I 1 
troops was to sell to the soldiers in the held, and 
the prisoners and wounded. There were at one time in 
Germany about one hundred and twenty thousan I ch 
prisoners, and measures were adopted to supply them all 
with the Scriptures. The French wounded in Gerraai 
were nol forgotten. The Turcos were general])' -lad 1 

read the Gospel, and it was the first time they had ever had 

the opportunity of doing it. The numl 

I . I estaments, and pari ributcd during the 

months of tie- war, was between l . K '| 

and two hundred and fifty thousand. I 



HELP FOR THE SOLDIERS. 297 

furnish five thousand copies a day. The agents of the 
Society kept right in the rear of the armies. Nancy, 
Saarbri':cken, and Sedan, were the centers on French ter- 
ritory. The universal testimony of the colporteurs was, 
that the soldiers were glad to get the Bible. Mr. Davies 
said at the time : " We are not forcing the books on the 
men ; they urgently beg for them. Last Sunday, the first 
thing I saw, on entering a hospital in Frankfort, was a 
Turco deeply absorbed in his Arabic New Testament, 
which we had given him a week or more before. Germans, 
French, and Arabs, are alike in the joy with which they 
receive God's Holy Word. ... It may give you an idea 
of what war brings with it for the agents of the Society, 
when I tell you that in the last two months I have spent 
twenty-three nights in railway carriages, or sleeping, cov- 
ered by my railway wrapper, on loose straw." 

The British and Foreign Bible Society also provided for 
the distribution of the Scriptures throughout the armies 
of Holland and Belgium, which, although not engaged in 
the war, were placed on a war footing, and were on the 
frontiers, guarding their neutrality. The agents at Brus- 
sels and Amsterdam were instructed to this effect, and 
distributed the Bible to the Belgian and Dutch soldiers. 



298 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE PULPIT AND THE PRESS IN THE WAR. 

T~^ UROPEAN Governments hold a tight rein on all 
-*— ' the forces entering into warfare. War is decided 
by cabinets, not by the people. Sometimes the two pull 
apart, as when the Prussians protested in every possible 
way against the war of 1866. But the Government has 
always weighed its case well before the public ear hears 
a suspicious whisper, and, war being decided on, the next 
point is to use every available agency to make it a succ 
This thing of bringing man, brute and block, into play is 
one of the most perfect pieces of European machinery. 
" If we are to fight," it seems to be said, "in all the land 
there must be nothing that shall not shoulder a musket " 

The first Sunday after war is declared the pulpit eel. 
the Government order, and continues to do so until Gov- 
ernment says: "Stop! You've said enough; the war is 
over!" But it is easy to see, as you listen to the sermons, 
whether the hearts of the clergy are with the war — wheth- 
er their patriotism has been touched. Of course, in the 
late war thru- was no doubt on that point The German 
clergy woke up one Sunday morning and found a French 
army threatening to cross the Rhine, and their lov< 
Fatherland gave them unwonted eloquence A young 
man said to me : " The minister we have is .1 | reacher 

■ — that is. In- preaches good war sermons." Accordin 



PULPIT AND PRESS IN THE WAR. 299 

all accounts, on the clay of fasting and prayer throughout 
Prussia, at the outset of the war, there were greater dis- 
plays of real eloquence, the hearts of the congregation 
were more deeply moved, than at any time since Water- 
loo. In Frankfort the churches were crowded — a strange 
sight ; and the people wept like children — a still stranger 
sight. The state of things was very threatening, and the 
clergy saw it, told the people so, and all felt and wept 
together. And so every sermon was on the war. The 
bereaved had to be comforted, and the popular spirit kept 
in righting trim. Sometimes a plain text was made to do 
odd service. I heard a Reformed minister apply the words, 
" Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy 
crown," to the necessity of continued German heroism to 
prevent the French from invading and destroying Germa- 
ny. The sermon was excellent, came from a sympathetic 
heart, and suited the people. Dr. Goldschmidt, a Jewish 
pastor of Leipzig, enlightened his flock and supplemented 
Plutarch by a parallel between Balak and Napoleon III. 

There was no Schleiermacher in Germany, however, and 
no sermons gained a national reputation ; but the congre- 
gations in various localities were so pleased with what 
they heard that printed sermons soon occupied a promi- 
nent place in the bookstore windows. 

The press of Germany did noble service in the war. 
The old differences that had divided the leading organs 
disappeared at once, and the Main no longer served as a 
landmark. The editorial department lacked the dash, 
elaborateness, originality, and freedom of the American 
press in our war, but the tone was fearless and chaste. A 



300 LIFE IN THE l\ i THERE. IND. 

few large papers, such as the Cologne "Zeitung," the 
Augsburg "Zeitung," and a couple cf Berlin journals, 
supplied points for the world of smaller fry. But even 
the best journals were poorly served with correspondence 
from the seat of war. Nearly all the details came through 
the English papers. As to full and satisfactory descrip- 
tions of battles, and that by telegraph, the thing was not 
known. Neither did they come by post. In fact, they 
were not written ; or, if they were, they were reserved for 
printing in quieter times. The best thing I found in a 
German paper was an account of the battle of Saar- 
brucken by a soldier who took part in it. The New York 
papers alone had more news going to them from the seat 
of war than was written for all the German papers put 
together. But the Government took pains to let the p< 
pie get the general news as soon as possible. What trans- 
pired under -'Our Fritz," and "my own direction,- and 
King William's prayer for "God's further merciful help," 
were printed on buff paper and posted on bulletin boards, 
erected in the most public thoroughfares and crossings. 
The newspaper "extras" had up-hill work against this 
official measure, but still found a sale— at one kreut/er. or 
two thirds ofa cent. It is bm justice to the official bulle- 
tins to say, that they never failed to give the French I 

The communication of information by non-official per- 
sons took quite another shape. A number of new ill 
trated periodicals on the war were started, and these sold 
wdl - Ma P s of ;i11 sizes of the seal of war were a princi- 
P al source "' revenue to the booksellers at this tfm 
These, with a whole army oi books on tactics, care of t. 



PULPIT AND PRESS IN THE WAR. 30 1 

wounded, fortifications, gunnery, military history, King 
William, the Crown Prince, Bismarck, Von Moltke, good 
Queen Louisa, and others ; volumes great and small of 
songs that suited the conflict ; new editions of Arndt, 
Klopstock, Korner, Uhland, and. Freiligrath ; music of 
all degrees of merit, with battle-scenes for frontispieces ; 
portraits of all the leading personages of Germany in any 
wise connected with the war — these, and similar produc- 
tions of the hot conflict, were the staple that the book- 
sellers relied on for profit. The dry goods merchants 
covered up the beautiful dress-patterns in their great bow- 
window's by dazzling displays of black, blue, and gold 
bunting. The boys wore uniform, and whipped McMa- 
hon, Bazaine, and the rest through the narrowest alleys. 

The German lampoons and caricatures multiplied, and 
in every case I saw they were directed against the Imperial 
family, and not against France generally. The Emperor 
was always represented as in some state of perplexity and 
suffering. In one colored caricature he was wrapped in 
swaddling-clothes, and helpless in the hands of Satan, who 
looked down in admiration upon his favorite child. In 
another, the whole family were going around, exhibiting a 
panorama of the war, the Empress serving as lecturer, 
and the Emperor as agent. In another, Napoleon was 
sawing wood for his bread. In another, a Prussian, with 
spiked helmet, was wheelbarrowing him into the Rhine. 
And so on ad infinitum. These caricatures, with all man- 
ner of squibs, found a good sale. The Turcos almost 
always played some part in the picture, as cannibals or 
little less. 



LIFE IN THE FA THERLAND. 



CHAP! ER VI. 

A SATURDAY AMONG THE FRENCH PRISON] 

D V a ride of less than an hour by rail from Frankfurt, 
-*-* I reached Mayence one Saturday, for the purpose 
of spending an hour or two among the French prisoners 
in that place. Mayence being one of the great fortifica- 
tions of Germany, and not far from the French frontier 
withal, it was one of the most important bases of opera- 
tions, centers of supplies and reinforcements, and depots 
for tlie wounded and prisoners, during the whole war. 
In crossing the Alain, there was time for only the most 
hasty glimpse at the beautiful statue of Charlemagne that 
stands in the middle of the oldest bridge over the river, 
and stretches out its grasping hand Franceward, as if pro- 
phetic ol [870. We were soon enveloped in a foi 
in autumn tints. On emerging, the whole Taunus range, 
with its complement of mediaeval towers, lay off at the 
right, while in front the valley widened until the yellow 

Main lost its murky waters in the clear, blue, and ever- 
cheerful Rhine; and Ear in the distance, in front, stood 

the northernmost outlying spurs oi the now anew his- 
torical Vosges. The busy peasantry were going over 
their fields for the last time before their winter rest, and 
were aided by a good number of French prisoners, who 
still won- their red trousers and caps, and seemed perfectly 
at heme on their new soil. p.. a government regulation, 



AMONG THE FRENCH PRISONERS. 303 

the French prisoners were required to till the fields, or 
engage in any occupation which suited them best, and the 
hire for them went into the State treasury — a most eco- 
nomical arrangement for Prussia, and one that the French 
seemed generally glad to submit to. 

When our train began to thread its way through the 
labyrinth of earthworks and all manner of fortifications, 
and crossed the cropped knoll near Castel, where the old 
Roman fortifications still stand, it was clear that we were 
nearing the Rhine. Soon we were over the river, try- 
ing to find our path through a world of soldiers, officers, 
travelers, and artisans, into the winding streets of old 
Mayence. 

The first sight that, at this time, would naturally strike 
one at all acquainted with the demure aspect of Mayence 
in time of peace, was the unwonted life that war imparted 
to it. One would think the whole German army was less 
than a dozen miles away. French prisoners walked up 
and down the streets, and loitered on the squares, as if 
they had been born and brought up in the city. Only 
when large bodies were together was there any guard over 
them, and even then there seemed little or no restraint. 
I stopped and talked with them at will, and they seemed 
glad to have the opportunity to answer a question or two, 
and tell the history of their disastrous campaigns. The 
prisoners were generally engaged in some kind of work 
for the citizens, and their briskness and mobile faces would 
have revealed their nationality even if they had not been 
clad in red cloth. They seemed contented, and some even 
cheerful, and regarded their military misfortunes as the 



Hi 



304 LIFE IN THE F. I THERL. WD. 

joint work of poor generalship and treachery. Few were 
so poor as to do Louis Napoleon reverence. While I was 
standing for a moment at the corner of one of the broadest 
and straightest streets, an immense body of new prisoners, 
fresh from defeat and capture, was marched on one side 
of the street in one direction, while the other side was as 
well packed with a moving- mass of their brethren, who had 
suffered the chagrin of captivity a little longer, and were 
probably on their way for some place farther east. 

Outside of Mayencc, in one of the suburbs, there was 
the prisoners' camp. It was on a hill, and overlooked the 
city and the Rhine and Main valleys. On the day of my 
visit there were in this camp and other parts of Mayen 
thirty-two thousand prisoners, or thereabout, as I learned 
from German officers. No one but the authorities placed 
over the prisoners was permitted to enter the camp ; but 
on one side of it the railing was down, preparatory to 
putting up new, and any one who happened to pass at the 
time could see the camp, and even talk at leisure with the 
prisoners, without interruption by the guards. The ap- 
parent absence of all pressure, the care which seemed to 
I-' taken by the authorities that no undue restriction bo 
placed over the prisoners to remind them of their captiv- 
ity, scorned to pervade the very air. I witnessed several 
familiar conversations between prisoners and the officers 
in charge of them, and scarcely a word was uttered that 
could suggesl the difference between prisoner and captor. 
I should have thought the whole community a lamih of 

Overgrown h-.\ l, 1 lad in blue and red. 

The camp consisted chiefly <>\ linen tents, but th< 



AMONG THE FREXCH PRISONERS. 305 

were now giving way to strong board ones, with roofing 
of cement cloth. There were many Turcos of all shades, 
from white to black. I saw some as black as my hat — 
tall, graceful, respectful, and of the most intelligent cast 
of face. They courted the sunshine, and, like our South- 
ern Sam in winter, had evidently the full supply of their 
wardrobe on their backs. Some of the Turcos were of 
less elevated type, but their average was as favorable as 
that of their fellows of fairer face. That the prisoners 
conducted themselves well, was the universal testimony. 

The prisoners from the newly-capitulated fortress of 
Schlettstadt had just arrived at the Elizabeth Fortress, 
and their reception was naturally a matter of considerable 
excitement. I was attracted by an immense crowd of 
prisoners in the middle of the court formed by the tem- 
porary barracks, and found, on approaching it, that a great 
wagon, laden with soup, was the center of interest. The 
soup was in big barrels, and it was distributed in great 
wooden pails ; but it was most welcome to the weary and 
half-famished prisoners, many of whom betrayed, by their 
features and general bearing, that they had been used to 
more delicate fare and richer service. The higher officers 
were very silent, and only conversed with the German 
officers when spoken to. They were clearly most unwilling 
guests, and one could discover a lurking, profound con- 
tempt for the country to which they had been brought, and 
for those who had arrested their opposition to Germany. 
The German soldiers were very tired of the war. Not 
one I saw seemed to wish it continued ; all shook their 
heads when reference was made to Paris and a winter 



306 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

campaign. One fine-looking Prussian, who had charge 
of a section of the prisoners' camp, told me that he had a 
brother in " Brukeleen," (Brooklyn,) and that if he had been 
in Germany, he would have had to fight, too, in the ranks. 
When I told him of the service the Germans had rendered 
in our war, and how many of them had fought in our 
army, and how the sympathy of almost all Americans was 
with German}- in her war, he had no language for his joy. 

I have often thought, from repeated conversations, 
that about every other young German man or woman 
of the lower classes is fully expecting to come to Amer- 
ica some day, and is saving money for that purpose. 
Fully nine out of ten have friends here, and a letter from 
one of them often circulates for months from village to 
village, until the complete circle of relatives anil acquaint- 
ances have read it. Some of these missives I have seen, 
so soiled and worn as to be almost illegible. They all tell 
the same tale of American freedom, and do their quiet 
work ol turning other eyes toward the great land beyond 
the sea. When the late German and French war was 
over, there was a new rush from Germany for our shores. 
Public security was regarded afresh in Europe as too 
capricious and uncertain a thing tor any one of slender 
means who can find a country where war and peace Ao 
no1 depend upon an individual, but on the judgment of the 
nation's representatives. 

But, alas! how many a brave fellow now sleeps beneath 

tin- daisies ..i" France who never lived to realize his fondest 
aspirations- the enjoyment of a home in the land three 
thousand miles westward ! 



V. 

KNAPSACK AND ALPENSTOCK. 



14 



. 



Wcr reisen will, 
Der sehwoigc siill: 
Geir slctcn stritt : 

Ni-hlll" lliilit virl Illit - 

Sn hraucht er iiicht zu surgvn — 
(Jnd geb ■ r *hl fr ill am Morten. 

PHILANDER VON SlTTBWALO. 



Mi German jaunts have been n period, the most healthy and active, thi- must Intel 
and anxious, and all nf thein the most joyous of my journeying days. In all parts and from 
every class, I rnel with honc&ly almost throughout, with tlie homeliest courtesy vcrj 
ami with friendship far warmer, 1 blush i" say, than an unknown wandering German 
have irol in Britain. 

I could not help bidding farewell to the hospitable Bhores and kindly inhabitant* i>f Ger- 
many, north and south, easl nud west, with a multitude of grateful feelings to God an 
ami with many reminiscences, i» which sincere and affectionate regret were apparent for Uie 
lime. And, even now. I make it my last sentence, as I trust it is my abiding sentiment, 
thai I inn fond of Germany and the Germans; and may health and happiness 
plenty . ever I"- « itli them all ! 

The Pedestrian, " Etoin v7krks t - - Germaht^ 
Icfort-nm-Maln, I 



THE TYROLESE ALPS. 



309 



CHAPTER I. 

TOWARD THE TYROL. 

LEFT Zurich, in eastern Switzerland, one mid-July 
■*■ for the purpose of making a pedestrian tour in west- 
ern Switzerland and the Tyrol, and was favored with the 
company of the Rev. Mr. Wortman, of the Reformed 
Church, Schenectady. We had provided ourselves with 
the necessary outfit. It consisted of as few articles as 
possible — nearly all of which, even the stockings, were 
woolen — packed in knapsacks, and ready to be strapped 
on the shoulders. Alpenstocks of strong ash, about seven 
feet long, and pointed with good iron spikes ; broad- 
brimmed hats ; high laced-shoes, trebly-soled and gen- 
erously peppered with hob- nails, completed our prepara- 
tion for a long foot-journey, and gave us a completely 
Alpine appearance. With our scanty supply of baggage 
we designed to ascend the most interesting glaciers of 
the Tyrol, and go southward as far as Lake Como, Italy, 
and eastward as far as the great highway from Innsbruck 
to Verona. Our knapsacks became very heavy many 
times, and often, in ascending a mountain, or following a 
long and tortuous path to a glacier or a waterfall, we were 
very willing to intrust them to the most thievish-looking 
mountaineer to carry them a mile for us. But we seldom 
had any relief in this respect, and became accustomed to 
our knapsacks, just as a man gets used to his heavy winter 



310 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

overcoat. There were short sections of the tour i 
■which it was better to ride than to walk, for, by this means, 
much time could be saved, and no object of interest lost. 
The road from Zurich to Ragatz presented a varied scene 
of land and lake, and a very watchful eye was requisite 
in order to use the prospects to advantage. 

Ragatz is chiefly remarkable because of the baths of 
Pfeffers, which are about an hour's walk up a valley back 
of the town. The Tamina river runs down the valley, 
and this is such a beautiful stream that the pedestrian, in 
admiring its bank, is apt to forget the curious gorge where 
it takes its origin. Finally, the large building where the 
baths are situated is reached. There you must take a 
ticket in order to be led to the gorge and the hot spring. 
Having gained the board walk, which was well guarded 
by a strong balustrade, we passed along the contracting 
Tamina until it was nearly hedged in, ami rendered all 
invisible in man}- places, by the t wering mountain sides 
that almost meet above, and <>nlv permit a few ra J 
even the noonday sun to reach down to the troubled sur- 
of the imprisoned river. The passage becomes nar- 
rower at almost every step, and one is irresistibly reminded 
of some of the dark passages which Haute describes in 
his " Inferno." Wherever there is a little soil on a rocky 
shelf, a tree o| the deepest green has taken root and 
ots up its slender form to meet the light. Flowers 

here and there find room to grow ; but they seem I 

somber products oi some other world than this. Then 
times when one wishes to have nothing to say to his guide, 
no matter how worth} he may be, and this was one of 



THE TY ROLES E ALPS. 31 1 

them in my case. He talked very volubly, but observing 
our silence, after many efforts at conversation, he came 
closely up to me, and put his arms around me. It was an 
unexpected evidence of affection ; yet it was also an excel- 
lent opportunity for one to pitch the other into the stream, 
and how did I know but this total stranger had been over- 
taken by a sudden attack of insanity ? After I had got- 
ten rid of his embraces he said : — 

" I am a good man ; I am not like common guides ; 
trust me, and I will tell you all about this wonderful thing." 

" Talk on," I replied ; and he did talk with a velocity 
equal to that of the mad Tamina, on whose dangerous 
margin we were walking. I suppose he meant well 
enough, but, like many of his fellow-beings, he had a very 
queer way of showing it. 

From Ragatz we went to Coire, and from there, as far 
up the Splugen Pass as the Via Mala, which is the Alpine 
gorge whence the Rhine takes its departure. At the en- 
trance of this most appropriately named defile there rises 
abruptly a high mountain, crowned with the ruins of a very 
old castle. But the mountains on either side rise higher 
as the valley is ascended, and their precipitous sides ap- 
proach more closely. All vehicles and pedestrians must, 
in one place, pass through a tunnel. The most interest- 
ing part of the Via Mala commences at the first bridge, 
which crosses the young Rhine so far above its surface 
that the bridge seems as if poised in the air. 

Passing over the unfrequented Schyn Pass, through 
which the Albula hastens to join the Rhine, we reached 
Tiefenkasten. Before arr ving at this place, however, we 



312 LIFE IX THE FATHERLAND. 

were compelled to stop at a most forbidding inn. It 
was not easy to tell how long the smoke of bad tobacco 
had been lurking in its dining-room, and when the hostess 
had made her toilet. The best thing she could think of 
to offer us was garlicky sausage ; but we suggested boiled 
eggs, always the best resort when there are any doubts of 
cleanliness. So, on black bread, a little honey, the execra- 
ble sausage, and the eggs, we feasted. Worn out with 
fatigue, we had scarcely finished our meal before we had 
fallen asleep on the old clothes amid the trumpery that 
lay scattered on the rough benches of the miserable room. 
But there never was sweeter sleep in a palace. How rap- 
idly one's fastidious notions disappear in travel ! We were 
soon prepared to sleep almost anywhere, and cat food that 
would be intolerable at home, and not provided for in the 
cookery-books of any of the Blots in Christendom. 

We went through the long valley of the Oberrhcinsthal, 
where we spent the night in an hotel on the bank of a very 
beautiful waterfall. The next morning we crossed the 
Julier Pass. Here we fust came in contact with snow, and 
were compelled to wrap our shawls closely about us when- 
ever we rested. ( >n descending, the Engadine Valley, 
with its deep blue lakes, picturesque villages, and fringe 
of glaciers, suddenly burst upon us. We .spent the Sab- 
bath in the town of Saniaden, ami the following day on 
tin- tup of the Bernina Pass, whence we descended into 
Italy its tar as the vile town of Tirano. Turning north- 
iin we reached the Stelvio Pass, and there came in 
i mil. nt with huge snow-drifts. We won- in the Tyrol. 



THE TYROLESE.— FIRST VIEW. 313 



CHAPTER II. 

THE TYROLESE AND THEIR MOUNTAINS. 

~*HE Tyrol, which is the great Alpine province or 
-*- crownland of Austria, is one of the most interesting 
portions of Europe, whether we regard its history, natural 
scenery, or the customs of the people. This " great natural 
rock fortress, approached only by narrow defiles or passes," 
was settled by Etruscans and Rhastians. Afterward it fell 
into the hands of Rome, and continued under its suprem- 
acy four centuries. Subsequently it was for a long time 
independent, being controlled by its own princes. Mar- 
garet Maultasch — "Pouting Meg" — was its last native 
ruler, and, dying childless in 1363, she bequeathed her 
country to the Duke of Austria, Rudolph IV., of Haps- 
burg. Singularly enough, the people quietly submitted to 
this arrangement, and have ever since exhibited a love of 
their monarchical government quite in contrast with their 
Swiss neighbors west of them. More than once the Ba- 
varians and French have invaded the Tyrol, and occasion- 
ally it has been for a considerable length of time under 
foreign rule. In 1805 Austria was compelled to cede it 
to Bavaria ; but the Congress of Vienna, which attempted 
to make Europe what it was before Napoleon I. appeared, 
returned it to Austria. 

The Tyrolese still retain the peculiar customs of their 
forefathers. They are clad in the same odd costumes of 



314 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND 

the past centuries, and to all appearance will do so for 
many a year to come. The women wear broad-brimmed, 
high-crowned, black fur hats. In some instances the hats 
are of heavy felt, but generally they are of long, shining 
fur. These are worn alike in the markets, the vineyards, 
and the hay-fields. With the exception of the odd hat, 
there is generally nothing peculiar in the dress of the 
women. But the dress of the men is fantastic through- 
out. There is, first, the high, cone-shaped, black felt hat, 
ornamented with a very broad band and a little bunch of 
natural or artificial flowers, or a feather of a chicken or 
turkey. You seldom see a man without the flowers or 
feather, or both together, in his hat. The coat is adorned 
with an abundant supply of broad binding ami bright but- 
tons, designed to be as much in contrast as possible with 
the color of the cloth. The pantaloons, usually of black 
buckskin, are surmounted by the greatest of all the orna- 
ments — a very wide leather girdle, covered with stitched 
figures, which must have taxed the time ami ingenuity of 
the manufacturer to devise. Then the long, closely fitting 
stockings reach to the knees, while the shoes arc low, and 
usually fastened by a buckle. This is the chief dres 
the Tyrolese when engaged in labor through the week; 
but on the Sabbath, or festal days, they wear a dress 
of the same general peculiarities, though of much finer 
material, ami of even more brilliant colors and strange 
contrasts. 

Tin' Tyrolese are ardently devoted to music and danc- 
ing, and whenever a holiday occurs whole towns and'vil- 
. quit laboi and engage in the sports, which have suf- 



THE TYROLESE. 315 

fered as little change as the costume through the lapse 
of time. Rifle-shooting and gymnastic exercises are the 
universal sport of the men — an exercise which the Gov- 
ernment takes good care to encourage and surround with 
as many charms as possible, as it is of great influence in 
making strong-bodied soldiers. The people are as rigid 
and blind Catholics as can be found in the Papal States. 
You are scarcely ever out of sight of a crucifix ; it is easy 
to see a dozen at once peering above the vines and hay. 
They occur at intervals of only a few rods on the sides of 
all the roads, in the streets and dwellings of all the villages 
and towns, flanking the narrowest mountain paths, and 
crowning the glacier summits of the highest passes. The 
crucifix is always adorned with a bountiful supply of red 
paint, which, from its peculiar hue, never failed to remind 
me of the pokeberry juice of juvenile days. This, of 
course, is designed to represent the blood profusely flow- 
ing from the brow, the hands, the feet, and the side of the 
Crucified. Little chapels are frequently met with, and 
generally stand on the hill-top. 

We found the glaciers lying around in friendly juxtaposi- 
tion, like great sleeping polar beasts. The sky was unusu- 
ally clear. Leaving our knapsacks near the road to take 
care of themselves for awhile, after my traveling companion 
and I had passed Ferdinandshohe — the highest permanent 
human habitation in Europe — we climbed the high peak 
to the left. The reward was well worthy of the half-hour of 
difficult ascent. The really immense glaciers near at hand 
now appeared to be only a small fragment of the whole 

glacier system bounding the entire horizon. To the west 
14* 



3i6 LIFE IX THE FATHERLAND 

and south-west were the ranges we had been wandering 
over fur mure than a week, while to the north lay others 
that we hoped tu climb in the weeks to come. Eighteen 
hundred peaks stood out in marble-like relief before us. 
It certainly gave us a very small idea of the work we had 
accomplished, or hoped to accomplish, to see the scene 
of several weeks' labor brought, to all appearance, almost 
within gunshot of where we were standing. This could 
be accounted for in a measure by the rarity of the atmos- 
phere ; but this was not the first time that, after perform- 
ing a task, however difficult it may have seemed at the 
time, it appeared very small on looking down upon it long 
afterward from a higher point than where the brain or 
hands had wrought. 

The great white Ortler peak rose directly opposite where 
we were standing. It is nearly ten thousand feet above 
the sea, and nine hundred feet above the line of perpetual 
snow. It stands as a patriarch in the midst of a large 
dependent group, all the intervening gaps bearing their 
burden of glaciers, whose depth and story no man can 
tell. Until lately the Ortler was regarded as the highest 
mountain oi the Tyrol; but the recent measurements of 
the Swiss engineer, Dcn/lcr, have proved that there are 
several others between tour and five hundred feet higher. 

Its peculiar conformation makes its ascent very difficult 
and dangerous. Until [804 it was thought inaccessible, 

when, owing to the large reward offered by Archduke 
John, m| Austria, to the first man who would scale it, 
Joseph Pichler, a bold Alpine hunter, gained the Coveted 
prize. Since then it has been ascended a number of 



THE TYROLESE. 317 

times, and careful surveys have been made of the Ortler 
and its snow-clad family. 

The winding road by which we had ascended on the 
Italian side could be seen here and there like an unwound 
gray thread in the deep distance. Just around a rocky angle 
was the long, low custom-house, connected with which 
was the inn of Santa Maria, where we had been treated 
to an unsavory dinner a couple of hours before, and where 
the Austrian publicans muttered gruffly through their 
great beards the first tidings we had of the death of Maxi- 
milian in Mexico. Beginning the descent where an obelisk 
marks the frontier line between Italy and Austria, the 
steep road, numbering fifty zig-zags, came into full view. 
New and different scenes were presented every few min- 
utes ; in fact, the succession of them was so rapid that 
our whole walk from the top of the Bormio Pass to the 
little inn where we rested at night seemed more like a 
dream, or some description that I had read, than a living 
experience. 

We spent the night in the little village of Trafui, a cor- 
ruption of Tres Fontes, which takes its name from the 
three icy streams that flow out of the precipitous side 
of a huge rock further up the valley. The forests, which 
extend as high up toward the Pass as vegetation can 
exist, abound in wild deer, while there is a certain plateau 
near by that goes by the name of the " Bears' Play- 
ground." The mountain shepherds have had many 
unpleasant experiences with the bears, which come down 
on their favorite " play-ground," and make sad havoc of 
the flocks that dare to intrude upon it. An hour's 



3 1 8 LIFE IN THE FA THERLAND. 

walk from Trafui brought us to a humble shed cover- 
in- statues of the Saviour, the Virgin Mary, and Saint 
John ; from the breast of each a stream of clear, fresh, 
"holy water" is made to flow. Close at hand is the little 
chapel containing a picture of the Madonna. This is 
supposed to possess miraculous powers. It is visited 
yearly by multitudes of Tyrolese pilgrims, and, for all 
the confidence they would place in your words, you 
might as well tell them that they are citizens of Pat- 
agonia as that that execrable daub can never cure their 
diseases. 

We started about five o'clock the following morning to 
complete the journey down the valley, and then to take 
the highway through the Vintschgau to Meran. The air 
was very refreshing, but it would be hours before the sun 
could penetrate the valley. The shepherds were leading 
their herds out to pasture. The milk-women were return- 
ing to their huts with their well-laden pails, and now 
and then a frightened bird would start up before us, 
and dart off to its home in the fir-forest. The road 
very frequently crossed the now wide and constantly 
enlarging stream ; so on every bridge we dropped our 
knapsacks and alpenstocks for a leisurely gaze into the 
mad torrent below, and then far up and down the valley 
sides, where quiet cottages nestled, like little cages, under 
some kindly rocky shell'. Villages multiplied as the valley 
grew broader; but the}- were so filthy and unromantic 
when we reached them that we tripped through them as 
rapidly as possible, preferring to rest by the roadside, 
where the unartistic peasantry had riol yet disturbed the 



THE TYROL ESE. 319 

lovely work of nature. In clue time the road suddenly 
emerged into the broad historical Vintschgau ; castles of 
rare beauty crowned every rocky height within view ; the 
bells from the chapels of the thickly scattered villages 
held high carnival as the clock had just struck ten ; the 
hay-fields near and far were alive with groups of gayly- 
dressed men and women, who were gathering their har- 
vest by the aid of primitive little sickles ; and the deep- 
green carpet of numberless vineyards lay unrolled all along 
the hill-sides, and bounded the horizon at each end of the 
enchanted valley. 

The Vintschgau, so called from its ancient inhabitants, 
the Vennotes, is the broad valley watered by the Adige. 
The stage-coach traverses its entire length, an arrange- 
ment which proved very convenient to us about the 
middle of the afternoon. Picturesque castles increased 
on either side, some of them being no longer tenable 
because of their ruined state, while others are occupied a 
part of the year by their titled owners. Almost every 
village has its reigning saint, and chapels line the way-side 
throughout the valley. In some instances we observed 
tufts of barley and Indian corn hanging over the crucifix, 
half-hiding the crown of thorns. On asking a peasant 
what it meant, he said, as nearly as I can now recall, 
" That means that we owe all our blessings to Him who 
died for us." A beautiful reply, and worthy of a less 
sensuous system of worship than that of the peasant and 
his countrymen. 

Of the castles on the way, Juval is one of the most 
extensive and picturesque. Before the invention of gun- 



320 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

powder it was considered impregnable. In the year 1546 
its owner, Linkmoser, surrounded it with a large outer 
building, a fact commemorated by a tablet over the gate- 
way. Its halls are ornamented with frescoes of biblical 
scenes — all made in the sixteenth century — and its door- 
posts are of the finest marble. From its windows, through 
which many generations have looked out upon the beau- 
tiful valley, there is a very fine distant view of the mount- 
ain range bounded oa the west by the Ortler. The 
Castelbello is another very large ruin. It was occupied 
until 1842, when its wooden work was destroyed by fire. 
It stands upon one solid rock, and is again surrounded by 
a dense growth of ivy. 



MERAN AND THE TYROL CASTLE. 321 



CHAPTER III. 

MERAN AND THE TYROL CASTLE. 

A LL the different attractions of the Aclige Valley 
■*■ *- combine as you draw near to Meran. The castles 
increase in number ; the vineyards assume even a tropical 
luxuriance ; the chapels multiply ; and waterfalls come in 
to help the splendor of the scene. Meran is not the en- 
throned queen of all, but lies low in the valley, as a rustic 
divinity asleep amid her favorite groves and fountains. 

A sudden halt before the broad doorway of an hotel was 
our signal for rest, and we were once more back again to 
real life. A huge crucifix stood at the end of the hall 
where we were assigned rooms ; but I fear the symbol 
had but little influence over the management of the hotel. 
The proprietor's boast was, that kings and princes had 
been his guests ; but of all the hotels where we stopped 
in the Tyrol, this was the only one where the waiters 
were impudent ; where, so far as I know, a direct and 
systematic attempt was made to cheat ; where we were 
compelled to sit at the table next to a man who seemed 
to be' an angry cross between intoxication and insanity ; 
and where we were treated at breakfast to loaves of bread 
which had lost their crust, and suffered huge excavations 
by hungry mice on their nocturnal peregrinations. We 
would not eat the bread, but had to make out a long and 
crooked case before getting better. 



322 LIFE IX THE FATHERLAND. 

Meran, a town of about three thousand inhabitants, 
first appears in history A.D. 857, and owes its origin to 
the destruction of the neighboring Roman town of Maja, 
in 800, by the fall of a mountain. Fragments of buried 
houses, Roman coins from Drusus to Justinian, and human 
bones, are still turned up in the fields and vineyards. 
Meran lies just at the junction of three valleys; it was 
the ancient capital of the country, and its castle of Tyrol 
was the residence of the rulers. In the Middle Ages it 
enjoyed great prosperity and power as a commercial 
center, but numerous wars and the conflicts between the 
princes and their vassals prostrated it, and it now owes 
nearly all its thrift to health-seekers, who visit it in large 
numbers every summer and autumn. It abounds in 
boarding-houses and fine promenades for their accommo- 
dation. The stores are mostly under low, gloom}' arcades, 
which are almost blocked up much of the time by loung- 
ing peasantry. 

The castle of Tyrol, about an hour's ascending walk 
from the town, has given its name to the country. It is, in 
part, a ruin, the massive watch-tower being the principal 
portion now remaining perfect. The doorway of the little 
chapel is interesting, because of its very old symbolic 
sculptures. The)' evidently date from the early art-period 
of the Christian era, probably not a whit later than the 
eleventh century. The authorities have created a little 
literature of disputation concerning their origin, and to 
this day there is no certainty arrived at. chic authority 

states that tlicv arc taken from the "Heroes' Book" oi the 

exploits of Emperor Ornit ami Wolfdietrich, in slaying 



MERAN AND THE TYROL CASTLE. 323 

the dragon's brood on the mountains of Trent, a fable 
emblematic of the victory of Christianity over paganism. 
Baron von Hammer has explained them to be Gnostic 
symbols ; this is probably the nearest approach to the 
truth yet reached. 

The castle of Tyrol contains an interesting collection 
of parchment manuscripts, and some vases and armor 
from the Middle Ages. It would be easy enough to get 
lost amid its winding halls, dark stairways, and subter- 
ranean passages. Its largest room is ornamented with 
portraits of the later members of the Hapsburg dynasty, 
all being distinguished by the unusually heavy under-lip 
characteristic of the family. From the windows of this 
room you enjoy the richest luxury which the great old 
castle, with all its history of cruel power and thrilling 
romance, can give, — a view of brother-castles that may be 
counted by the dozen ; of villages so close together as 
almost to form a continuous city ; of streams running in 
all directions, as if engaged in some musical, hide-and- 
go-seek game of their own ; of vineyards whose divisions 
and ownership seem obliterated by their luxuriant over- 
growth ; of avenues of chestnut, mulberry, and plum-trees 
winding with the roads ; of glaciers that lie high up on 
the bleak hills, and look down with the same cold eye as 
in the long-gone centuries ; and of the bold mountains 
of porphyry and dolomite that bound the eastward view 
toward Botzen, and tell of the Brenner Pass, over which 
the Roman legions often went to make conquests in the 
barbarian north, and of the disturbance of whose hardy 
people by the victorious Drusus, Horace thus sung : — 



324 LIFE IN THE FA THERLAND. 

" Videre Rhaeti bella sub Alpibus 
Drusum gerentem. 

Drusus, Cermanos implacidum genus 
Brennosque veloces, et arccs 

Alpibus im posit as tremendis 
Dejecit acer plus vice simplici." 

Plucking a few ivy-leaves that hung in wasteful plenty 
over the outer wall of the castle, and emerging through 
the gateway where the portcullis used to hang, we reached 
the main road leading" through villages and vineyards 
back to Meran. The street corners were occupied by 
smoking, lounging peasants, who, in accordance with 
their social custom on seeing strangers, whom the} - regard 
no nearer nobility than themselves, gave a homely but 
hearty greeting as we passed. The shop-keepers were 
half asleep at their stalls under the arcades, and the prom- 
enades were alive with slowly-sauntering invalids from 
Northern Europe. The setting sun cast long shadows 
across the market-place in front of the Archduke John 
Hotel, where we lodged — there, now, I have divulged its 
aristocratic name in spite of a benevolent design to the 
contrary — and thus closed another of Meran's loveliest 
days. 

Early the next morning we started on our six hours' 
walk for Botzen. The road was attractive beyond all the 
descriptions of the guide-books, and I bad no regrets at 

seeing the stage pass by and leave us to enjoy the scenery 
at our leisure. This section was a favorite home of the 
southern nobility in the Middle Ages, who displayed great 
taste iii the selection of sites for residence, for their 
castles occupy all the points where good prospects are 



MERAN AND THE TYROL CASTLE. 325 

presented. There is one bridge on which we stood and 
counted twenty castles within clear view. The Lowen- 
burg contains sixty chambers, and is surrounded by ter- 
races and sloping vineyards. The Schonna has more 
the appearance of a fortress, and the guide can still show 
its gates, armory, drawbridge, and dungeons. The Frags- 
burg — the Roman Trifagium — stands on a high cliff and 
looks down on the Katzenstein and Neuberg at its feet. 
It is occupied, and still retains its grim mediaeval glory 
and solidity. On the almost perpendicular cliff rising at 
the left of the roadside there stands one of the most 
interesting ruins in the Tyrol. It is the Maultasch Cas- 
tle, so called because it was a favorite home of the last 
Tyrolese ruler, Margaret Maultasch, or " Pouting Meg." 
There are many strange stories connected with its his- 
tory, and in many of the legends of the Tyrol the Maul- 
tasch plays a very romantic part. 

My companion having taken advantage of a rickety old 
chaise that was bound for Botzen, I was left alone for a 
while. So I clambered up the hill to see the Maultasch 
ruin more closely, and enjoy the fine prospect from its 
crumbling walls. The desolation was complete. Some 
of the heavy arches had lost their keystones ; others had 
entirely fallen ; while still others were so threateningly 
awry that I hastened from beneath them. Lazy lizards 
lay sleeping on the shapeless stone fragments, whose 
almost effaced images had occupied years of artistic labor 
far back in some unknown mediaeval century. The ivy- 
vines had aided the work of decay by softly penetrating 
every crevice, and thus gently uplifting and overturning 



326 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

the huge stones that war and time had mercifully spared. 
Fig-trees grew wild in the courts where once the prince- 
ly halls had stood. But from those old windows, which 
are now only misshapen rents, you enjoy a scene of 
nature which never grows old. It was as beautiful when 
I saw it as when Pouting Meg looked upon it. I then 
found what I had not perceived before, that the Mault- 
asch stands just on the rocky angle commanding a view 
of two immense valleys. But the ruin was lonely be- 
yond description, and I was glad enough when I could 
feel satisfied with the enjoyment of the prospect suffi- 
ciently to leave it, and all its stories, to themselves. In 
order to save time I took a nearer way down ; but it was 
a sore experience, for I lost my way. Half-running and 
half-falling, meanwhile waking up innumerable lizards that 
lay as dead on the mossy rocks, I finally reached the hill- 
side of a vineyard. The heat was intense, and it was 
nearly an hour before I was fit to leave the shade of a 
convenient chestnut-tree for the last part of the tramp 
to Meran. 

The Sigmundskrone is the most extensive ruin for many 
miles around. It rests on the rocky base where the Ro- 
man castle of Formicaria had stood, and may be seen in 
all directions. The view from it must be very fine, but my 
Maultasch experience took away all the spare time for that 
purpose. In 1475 the Sigmundskrone became the prop- 
ert) of Archduke Sigismund, who had it restored to a 
condition of great beauty. At present it is the property 
of Count Sarntheim, and its vaults are used as a powder 
magazine for the local troops. 



MERAN AND THE TYROL CASTLE. 327 

Botzen is the great commercial center of the Tyrol. Its 
population numbers ten thousand, who, in physique, lan- 
guage, and customs, bear a strong resemblance to their 
Italian neighbors. It lies in the center of a magnificent 
amphitheater formed by the dolomite and porphyry mount- 
ains east and north, and by the castellated hills south and 
west. It was settled originally by the East Goths. The 
houses have a decidedly Italian appearance, and the prin- 
cipal business is conducted , under dingy arcades, as in 
Padua. From the early period of the history of Botzen 
the arcade on one side of the market-place has gone by 
the name of the Italian, while the opposite one has been 
called the German, because of the respective nationality 
of the venders. The parish church was finished in the 
year 1400, and has lately undergone extensive restorations 
and improvements. The gardens abound in many rare 
floral varieties, and are justly regarded as one of the prin- 
cipal attractions of the town. As this was the market- 
day, I had a good opportunity of seeing the costumes of 
the peasantry, and the various productions of the country. 
Oranges, lemons, figs, apricots, and mammoth plums were 
offered in large masses by as unkempt a set of fruit dames 
as I have ever seen handle dirty coppers and stained pint- 
measures. As a pleasant offset to their appearance, all 
the streets were musical with the refreshing mountain 
streams that are made to flow through them, and the 
market-places and street corners are ornamented with 
ever-flowing grotesque fountains. 



328 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 



CHAPTER IV. 

OVER A BACKBONE. — CROSSING A GLACIER. 

TV /T Y companion preferred to take the stage line of the 
* * -*- Brenner Pass, while I struck to the left, to cross 
one of the -Teat Tyrolese backbones. We were to meet in 
five days, and resume our journey. The proper point for 
crossing the range of mountains separating the Vintsch- 
gau Valley on the south from that of the Inn on the 
north, is the filthy little village of Staben. You can lake 
the stage, and in two and a half full days get around into 
the Inn Valley at a point opposite Staben ; but if you wish 
a five days' walk over one of the wildest parts of the Alps, 
and then descend into the charming valley of the Oetzt, so 
as to traverse every mile of its course, let the stage attend 
to its own legitimate business. You have a richer feast be- 
fore you than that enjoyed by its sleep)', dusty occupanl 
It will take you more time than the}- will need, but you will 
gain many advantages for which they dare not hope. 

I he road from Staben leads precipitously through vine- 
yards, and in iluc time the narrow valley of the Schnals 
is entered. I had hardly lost sight of Staben before I was 
overtaken by a Tyrolese pedestrian, who had a friendly, 
open countenance, and told me that he was going to Unser 
Frau — Our Lady — the ver) cluster of houses upon the 
Pass where I hoped to spend the night. The path w.is 
not very easj to discover at some places, and Christian — 






OVER A BACKBONE.— CROSSING A GLACIER. 329 

for that was his name — served the purpose of a trusty 
guide. The valley became narrow and very deep, and the 
foot-path wound along the left side. Every step had to 
be taken with care, but there was no danger to any one 
who is not subject to giddiness. Hour after hour passed 
by, and still the valley did not terminate. There were lit- 
tle patches of stunted hay below us ; and streams of clear 
water ran down the sides of the mountain, and were care- 
fully directed into courses most advantageous for irrigating 
the land. No cart or vehicle of any kind can traverse the 
Schnals Valley ; all the burdens must be carried on the 
backs of the peasantry or the donkeys. The post-boy 
ascends it only once a week, but he might almost as well 
abandon his craft, for his work is commensurate with 
the profound ignorance and superstition of the peasantry. 
We soon came to a point, whence, far below, we saw a small 
cluster of houses, the parish chapel standing on a mount- 
ain above them: On asking Christian if the people of 
the village worshiped in that chapel, which could only be 
reached by a difficult ascent, he replied, " O yes ; they all 
go to Church at the appointed times. They don't mind 
climbing a mountain." I immediately thought of the 
many pretexts I had heard in the United States in justi- 
fication of absence from the house of worship, by people 
who save all their diseases of the week until Sabbath 
morning, and whom a little shower, or snow-squall, or a 
walk of a good healthy distance, never keeps from the 
place of business from Monday until Sunday. It is diffi- 
cult to tell what sort of an exclamation such folks would 
make if they were to see the little chapel of St. Catharine, 



330 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

which has stood ever since the year of grace 1502, high 
above the dwellings of its prompt congregation. But per- 
haps if they had to undergo the same difficult ascent for 
a time, they would manufacture a convenient windlass or a 
comfortable elevator to hoist them up to their devotions. 

About the middle of the afternoon we reached the 
buildings of the old Carthusian Monastery, which bears 
the imposing name of " Mountain of all the Angels." 
The monastery was founded A. D. 1326 by King Henry, 
who was at the time only Prince of Tyrol, but bore the 
royal title as Pretender to the Bohemian crown. The 
institution was abolished in 1782, and the cells are occu- 
pied by a squalid population of poor and ignorant persons. 
There are some old paintings in the St. Anna Church by 
an unknown hand. Knitting stockings and raising cattle 
are the principal occupation of the people now occupying 
the monastery and the lowly huts grouped around it. This 
is a convenient center for many interesting excursions. 

It was near sunset when we arrived at " Unser I-'rau," 
the last village of the valley of the Schnals, which is 
lure over five thousand feet above the level of the sea. 

Christian lay clown to sleep on the velvety grass beside 
the door of the inn, and the homely hostess made liberal 
promises of a good dinner. Meantime I engaged a -aide 
for the following day's journey over the Pass, and had a 

pleasant chat with the young priest, who was the junior 
curate of the village Church, lie spoke oi an intimate 
priestly friend of his in Cincinnati, hut he no sooner 
Learned that I was an American than a very significant 
expression clouded his hue, as much as to say, "Ah, well; 



OVER A BACKBONE.— CROSSING A GLACIER. 33 1 

poor land, your people are only Protestants, and they don't 
know any better." He told the history of his little chapel, 
and offered snuff, as if to draw me into sympathy with his 
story. The original chapel was built in the year 1303, but 
it went into decay afterward, and was restored to its present 
state in 1746. In the chapel there is a "Mercy Picture," 
which is highly revered through a large extent of country, 
and is the object of many pilgrimages. There is also a 
beautiful picture representing St. Bruno. It is supposed 
to be by Helfenrieder. There is an exquisite wooden 
crucifix in the sacristy. 

The dinner was not equal to that of an American hotel, 
but hunger sweetens the poorest fare. Each room was 
presided over by one or more pendent crucifixes, some of 
which reached almost from the ceiling to the floor. Ar- 
rangements had to be made for food next day, as I was 
to eat high up on the Pass, far from any inn whatever. 
The hostess showed me a long chest, which was partitioned 
off, and contained sundry uninviting bits of dried fat pork, 
mutton, and beef. They were savory with garlic, and 
finely coated with cobwebs. I declined all her propositions 
for dried meat, and finally determined on hard-boiled eggs. 
The upper hall, on which my bedroom was situated, was 
first covered by accumulated dirt, and afterward by many 
loaves of bread, which seemed to be spread there in order 
to undergo some further hardening process. How many 
I trod on while passing up and down stairs I will not en- 
gage to say ; but it is just as likely that previous guests 
had trampled well over the hard, thin, blackbread loaves 

that helped to satisfy my hunger. The bedroom was 
15 



332 LIFE IX THE FATHERLAND. 

the best iii the house. I had ample accommodations for 
Catholic worship, even it I had been thus occupied all 
night. There were several chief crucifixes looking down 
upon me from the corners of the room, to say nothing of 
the ornaments wrought into miniature crucifixes. On 
searching for matches I found a little object, which was 
surmounted by a crucifix, hanging high at the door. This 
appeared more like a match-safe than any thing else, but 
on feeling for matches there was only ice-cold water. Thus 
I had the benefit of "holy water" to give such pleasant 
dreams as may be expected of an American when he 
sleeps on a worn-out and hill)- straw mattress, in keeping 
with the rocky country around him. 

Just at half-past four o'clock the next morning I had the 
satisfaction of seeing my guide, Joseph Rafeiner, trip off 
with my knapsack on his back. This was to be the most 
adventurous da)' of my Tyrolese journey, and Joseph said 
that the peaks were in clearer view than usual. In about 
three hours we took a lunch, before crossing the mountain, 
in the last human habitation — the only ^\w I was to see 
before evening. Though I had been gradually ascending- 
all the day before, and also ever since Joseph and I had 
started that morning, it was only now that we came to the 
direct and precipitous ascent of the Hoch Joch Ferner. 

Friendly sheep followed cl se behind us, and a drove ^i 
horses seemed to enjoy our companionship. The air was 
very cold, and ever) time I stopped there was immediate 
need oi m\ heavy shawl. About noon we reached the 
neighborhood oi the Hoch Joch Ferner, when we nestled 

I'losel) Lindei a rock to spend a hall hour over our hard 



OVER A BACKBONE,— CROSSING A GLACIER, m 

eggs and harder bread. Cold chills ran through me all 
the time, and I was glad enough to be in motion again. 
It had snowed a good deal the day before — which was the 
8th of July — and there was no path to be seen over 
either the great patches of snow that stretched down on 
the sides of the mountain or over the glacier itself. Jo- 
seph went ahead, and made tracks for me as well as he 
could ; but he needed a hatchet, which he had neglected 
to bring along. The snow had here frozen to ice dur- 
ing the night, and it was almost impossible to gain 
footholds. With the exception of a slight fall, that did 
no further harm than a half hour's excited nerves and a 
soon-forgotten bruise, no accident occurred. But Joseph 
afterward took me by the hand, and held me with the iron 
grasp of an Alpine athlete. 

Having reached the glacier proper, we gradually 
ascended it untill we stood upon its highest point, which 
is indicated by a rough wooden cross. The view was 
not as distant as I had anticipated ; I could see almost 
nothing but snow-clad mountains on all sides. It ap- 
peared as if that was all there was of the earth. Between 
the mountains, glaciers many miles in length trailed 
down like white serpents, and converged into one, the 
Hoch Joch, on which we were shivering in the cold. The 
scene reminded me of a colossal, uplifted human hand, 
the outstretched fingers representing the separate gla- 
ciers, and the wrist the magnificent central one formed by 
their convergence. The air was as clear as ether itself ; 
the Similan, though twenty miles off, seemed within an 
hour's walk. The horizon was of a pale green, but the 



334 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

higher we looked toward the zenith the bluer the sky 
grew, until] it became intensely blue just above us. We 
had to protect our faces from the powerful reflection from 
the ice by means of goggles and green vails ; but I relieved 
myself of mine whenever it became necessary to take 
advantage of a new view. We passed occasionally a 
rough wooden cross, which did not mark out the path, 
but only indicated the spot where some ill-fated hunter 
or traveler had suffered the penalty of his rashness. 

Having begun the descent of the glacier, the valley 
of the Oetzt broke upon us in all its wild grandeur. We 
found some chasms that the July sun had already begun 
to make and widen, and when our feet once mure struck 
the solid ground, or rather rock, a feeling of indescribable 
relief came over me. Joseph and 1 took our last lunch 
together just after finishing our five miles' walk over the 
glacier. Then we parted, he back to his humble home at 
" Unser Frau," and I for a fortnight of calmer and less 
adventurous travel far down below the glaciers and their 
chill air. 

The path was now plain enough for the most of the 
way, but there were some fearful gorges which it threaded 
high above the stream, and more than once I wished for 
Joseph's strong hand again. In a few hours i reached 
stunted vegetation Once more, and herds of sheep, w: 
shepherds were nowhere to be seen, came up like old 
acquaintances and rubbed their n< ainst my I 

tered hands, as if to kiss me welcome after the completion 
"i tin- hardest day's work of m\ life. 



FATE OF A TYROLF.SE GUIDE. 335 



CHAPTER V. 

FATE OF A TYROLESE GUIDE. 

^HAT night I found good lodgings in the village of 
■*- Fend, with the parish priest, Father Franz Senn, for 
mine host. Fend lies six thousand feet above the sea, 
and the air is no doubt chilly throughout the summer. 
I called it " cold " that night, but the priest said, with a 
smile, as he walked the plateau in front of his house and 
read his breviary, " O no, it is only fresh." If any member 
of Father Senn's profession surpasses him in the frigidity 
of his parish, he is certainly deserving of hearty commis- 
eration, for a good part of it consists of such dangerous 
glaciers as have defied all efforts to scale and cross them, 
or have ingulfed, in their unknown depths, many rash 
intruders upon their slippery and deceptive surface. 

Many travelers, coming in from all quarters, stop and 
spend the night with Father Senn. This proprietor has 
collected a valuable little library relating to the Tyrolese 
Mountains, and has been one of the best explorers, and 
even cartographers, of that intensely interesting section. 
He has spent his spare days and weeks in scaling hitherto 
untrodden peaks, making observations, and discovering 
new paths through the valleys ; and his services in Alpine 
surveys have been duly recognized by many of the writers 
in this department. All travelers who have been enter- 
tained under his roof will remember with pleasure his 



33 5 LIFE IX THE FATHERLAND. 

pleasant manners, highly intelligent face, and more than 
ordinary acquirements. 

What Mr. Serin has been in a friendly and scientific 
way to travelers in the Tyrol, Cyprian Graubichler was in 
a practical way, as a bold and adventurous guide. He was 
living when I was in the Tyrol and slept at Fend, but 
since then he has fallen a victim to his dangerous calling. 
I cannot refrain from giving an account of his last adven- 
ture, which closed with his life. His fate will illustrate that 
of many a Tyrolese climber. He was endowed by nature 
with an ardent love of his native mountains, and soon 
rose head and shoulders above the craft of guides, by the 
daring character of his undertakings. No boy born on 
the sea-shore was ever more fearless on the waves con- 
stantly within his hearing, or more ardently longed for 
the opportunity of sailing over all seas and of enjoy- 
ing all their wild humors, than did this plain Tyrolese 
peasant hope to traverse untrodden glaciers, look down 
from giddy precipices, chop out stairways in the unraelting 
ice to fearful acclivities, and to be the first to plant the 
crucifix on many of those snow-clad peaks. Mr. Senn, 
the Catholic priest, and Cyprian Graubichler, usually 
called " Cyper," the peasant guide, were fit companions for 
hazardous enterprise, and no wonder that, drawn together 
by a peculiar sympathy, their name-; will be forever as 
ciated in the story of Tyrolese adventure, aye, and of 
tragedy too. But they have made their last wearisome 
tramp together. The priest still reals his breviary 
counts his beads as he walks up an 1 ! iwn the greensward 
before his quiet inn al Fend, while poor Cyper, who. 



FATE OF A TYROLESE GUIDE. 337 

though young in years, had achieved the reputation of 
being one of the most successful of all the guides in the 
Tyrolese Alps, sleeps amid the towering glaciers that he 
traversed with staff, and pick, and rope. 

Cyper was born at Solden, in the valley of the Oetzt, in 
March, 1835. When twenty years of age he was required 
to present himself for military service in the Austrian 
army, but was declared by the surgeons unfit for duty be- 
cause of flat feet. He was very glad to be released, of 
course, and thereupon learned the carpenter's trade, a 
work in which he ever afterward engaged when not em- 
ployed in traversing the mountains. He commenced 
guiding travelers over the Tyrolese Alps in the year 1861, 
and, after four years of minor undertakings, began to 
scale hitherto unascended peaks, and to attract attention 
by the daring character of his journeys. Mr. Senn, the 
Catholic priest, found in him a congenial spirit, and chose 
him for his companion on his most hazardous undertak- 
ings. The last dangerous tour which Cyper made before 
the fatal one to be recounted presently, was with the 
Grand Duke Ferdinand Rainer, of Austria, over the Kreutz 
Joch and Wildspitze and many intervening glaciers. The 
travelers' registers found in the inns throughout the Tyrol 
abound in praises of Cyper ; and the celebrated mountain- 
climber, Johann Stuedl, of Prague, says of him, in a late 
volume of the Annals of the Austrian Alpine Union, the 
following : " In all his excursions, particularly the dan- 
gerous ones, he preserved the greatest composure and 
foresight, and revealed a remarkable endurance, knowledge, 
and acuteness of vision." 



338 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

The account of the final adventure of Mr. Senn and Cy- 
per together, which led to the death of the latter, must be 
given, to do justice to the truth, substantially as found in 
" Aus clem Leben Eines Gletcherfuhrers," (Munich, 1869,) 
in the language of the former : — 

" I was in Meran with Cyper from the 26th of October, 
1 868, to the 5th of November, my object being to restore 
my broken health, and the aim of us both to recuper- 
ate from the extraordinary labors which we had passed 
through during the summer. We had a most delightful 
time during our stay in Meran. On Friday, the 6th of 
November, it was high time for us to leave Meran, in 
order to reach Unser Frau, in the valley of the Schnals, 
on the same day. On Sunday I had official duties at 
home, and, the 7th of November being Saturday, there 
was "only one day left to cross the Hoch Joch. The 
previous beautiful weather gave us no ground for appre- 
hension of danger ; besides, a man who had just come 
from Fend, Gregory Klotz, assured us that the glaeier 
was quite free from new snow. We were, therefore, very 
hopeful when, on Saturday morning, after a walk of two 
hours, we had reached Kurzras, the last stopping-place 
in the valley of the Schnals, and had found fresh snow 
only two indies deep. We thought that this snow, as ex- 
perience often teaches, did not reach as tar up as the 
glaeier. Leaving Kurzras at about half-past eleven, we 
proceeded confidently on our way to the Hoch Joch. 
About half-past one o'clock, in the afternoon, we reached 
the south-west end of the Hoch Joch glacier, without 
having mel with an) special difficulties ; we observed. 



FATE OF A TYROLESE GUIDE. 339 

however, that, as we ascended, the snow gradually became 
deeper, and we at last found it about half a foot deep. 
Still, this fact, together with the additional one that it still 
continued snowing, and that the whole atmosphere was 
filled with very fine snow-flakes, gave us no real ground 
for alarm ; we comforted ourselves, on the other hand, 
with the thought that we would make good way over the 
glacier, and then proceed comfortably on our journey to 
Fend. We were both thoroughly acquainted with the 
way, and, if it had been summer, we could have gone the 
whole distance blindfold. But, unfortunately, we were soon 
to experience a bitter disappointment. 

"After tarrying a quarter of an hour at the so-called 
Boedele, the usual stopping-place of tourists, we both par- 
took of our fat pork, beef, bread, and wine, and about 
a quarter before two o'clock stepped on the glacier, 
whose length we hoped to traverse in the course of two 
hours. Just as soon as our feet touched the glacier, we 
sank up to our knees in freshly fallen snow. Still, we did 
not despair, but hoped it would be better. We went on 
in this way about an hour and a half, sinking all the time 
in deep snow, and had not reached the so-called Latsch- 
buechel ; therefore had not passed a third of the glacier. 
Cyper then said to me, ' I think we should return ! ' I 
answered him, ' It is Saturday, and consequently my duty 
to be in Fend ; and since the west wind is blowing, every 
trace of our way back to Kurzras has probably disappeared ; 
besides, we have passed over one-half of our way from 
Unser Frau, and will soon find less snow.' Cyper, with- 
out making any reply, immediately went on, merely 
15* 



340 LIFE IN THE FA THERLAND. 

complaining occasionally that he found his light summer 
clothing altogether too cold for him. As I remarked that 
' I wished we had taken a man with us from the valley of 
the Schnals,' he replied, ' Nobody would have gone with 
ns.' We did not reach the Latschbuechel until twilight, 
both of us being quite tired, the high wind increasing in 
violence, and the snow growing deeper all the time. ' O, 
I wish we had returned,' said I, ' but it is too late — there- 
fore, ever onward ! ' Yes, ' Onward ' was easy enough to 
say, but very hard to carry out. The wind grew to a per- 
fect hurricane, and the snow came down in heavy masses, 
and soon the dark night was upon us. I said, ' O, I do 
wish we were on the other side of the glacier!' But this 
was not to take place very soon. Sinking at every step 
to our thighs in the snow, the darkness of the night over- 
took us but a short distance beyond the Latschbuechel, 
therefore about in the middle of the glacier ; and as we 
wished to take the direction of the path used by travelers 
in the summer, we wished to go to the right. Scarcely 
had ten minutes passed by before I said, ' Cyper, it seems 
to me that we are on the way back to the valley of the 
Schnals, for the wind is now dead ahead of us ! ' He also 
was convinced that this was the case, and advised our 
turning round. We now resolved to bear constantly to 
the left, to the so-called Hoherberg, and by this means 
to reach the Steinerne Treppe. This way, it is true, is 
somewhat further, but it is the one usually traveled, and, 
by taking it, we were sure of guarding against the dan- 
ger of getting very far out of the way, for we had the 
glacier at our right and the Hoherberg at our left. We 



FATE OF A TY ROLES E GUIDE. 341 

plodded constantly forward, no change taking place in the 
weather or in the depth of the snow, and finally reached 
the Steinerne Treppe about ten o'clock at night. 

" We had long been anticipating the joy of reaching this 
point, hoping there to find pleasanter weather and less 
snow. But what a delusion ! Instead of finding the 
west wind there which had previously prevailed, we were 
confronted by a violent hurricane from the north, and the 
great snow-flakes shut out the little light which we should 
otherwise have had, and made every step oiieof the great- 
est danger. It was almost impossible for us to cross the 
glacier diagonally to the Kreuzberg and the Neuweg, be- 
cause of the total darkness and the chasms in the glacier. 
We had no rope to tie around us, and were therefore 
compelled to make the dangerous and difficult passage 
downward to the Erzboedele. We now had to clamber 
with hands and feet — for neither of us had any longer a 
stick with us — an effort which first wheeled us to the 
right and then to the left, so that I now wonder how, 
under such circumstances, we could ever have reached the 
neighborhood of the Erzboedele. Scarcely had we gotten 
a good footing, and gained a few steps, before we were 
overtaken by a new, and almost greater, difficulty. Cyper 
regarded it impossible to find either the Hintereis or the 
Rofenberg shepherd's cottage, and I doubted whether it 
would be possible to reach the left side of the Hintereis 
glacier, and, by going along the Rofenberg, and then oVer 
the Vernagt glacier, to reach the Neuweg. We therefore 
resolved to go straight across into the Rofenthal, know- 
ing that there are no chasms in the glacier there, and 



342 



LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 



that the Neuweg was just on the other side of the 
Kreuzberg. 

" We found that the steep smooth ice was covered deep 
with fresh snow, and it was therefore impossible to obtain 
a good footing. As we, however, found the Kreuzberg 
near before us, we did not observe, until too late, an almost 
perpendicular wall of ice to our right, which was almost 
perfectly free from snow. Cyper stepped upon it, glided 
down, and in a moment was lost from my sight. 'How 
are you?' I exclaimed. 'Too good,' was his response 
from below. 'Are you injured?' 'No.' 'Then can I 
slide down to where you are ? ' ' For God's sake no ; 
for there is an awful mountain chasm, and I have been 
thrown across it ! Go higher up ! ' So I did as he said, 
sounding the snow at every step I took. Sometimes I 
crept along on my knees and hands, and, finally, after con- 
siderable circuitous creeping, came down to where Cyper 
was. My first exclamation was, ' God be praised, now that 
we have the glacier behind us !' Away down in the depth 
where we were there was no wind, and I could thcref 
light a match. I did so, and found it was half-past twelve 
o'clock at night. 

"The glacier was now behind us. and it had taken us 
eleven hours to cross it, though in summer it is a work 
easily accomplished in only two. We hail lone aeo 
given up almost all hope of reaching the end of it alive, 

I therefore said, as we had thus far been successful, ' Now 

we will come out all right.' • ( >. my God!' was Cyper's 
response, in a tremblin ; v lice. ■ [s any thing the mat; 
with you ?' '1 have been too much frightened by my fall,' 



FATE OF A TYROLESE GUIDE. 343 

said he. I then noticed, as I came close up to him, that 
his whole body was in a fearful tremor — and this never 
left him afterward. Even a few swallows of wine, which 
he here took, did not help him in the least. I had already 
repeatedly told him to take a swallow of wine occasionally, 
but he would not do it. He always said, ' The wine is 
too cold for me.' We rested here only a few moments, 
saying, ' We dare not stand here ; we must keep in mo- 
tion.' For we well knew that, after we had rested awhile, 
if we should fall asleep, we should never wake up. 

" The howling of the night wind was awful, and immense 
masses of snow kept falling all the time. Still, we kept 
moving forward, sometimes turning to the right, and 
sometimes to the left. We now found out that we were 
too high upon the mountain side, and must, therefore, find 
some way lower down. Now there seemed to be no 
ground of hope, and our endeavors to progress through 
the deep snow were utterly fruitless. Still, we often said, 
' We must do our best to save our life — therefore, let us 
go slowly and keep in motion.' Our last drop of wine 
was exhausted between three and four o'clock in the morn- 
ing, and we were too weak to chew the bread and frozen 
fat meat which we had in our pockets. We were expect- 
ing death at any moment, and, as soon as the day began 
to dawn, we found that we were still too high, and that it 
was almost an indescribably dangerous task to get lower 
down. Still, our courage was somewhat increased by the 
daylight, and I said, ' Now come on, we can easily go to 
Fend.' 

It was about six o'clock in the morning, and, therefore, 



344 LIFE IN THE FA THERLAND. 

only a distance, in summer weather, of half an hour's walk 
to Rofenberg. ' About ten o'clock,' I said, ' we can be 
in Fend.' What a mistake ! Scarcely had we gone a few 
steps before we were overwhelmed by an avalanche of 
freshly fallen snow. I was behind Cyper, and suddenly 
drawing back, was hid from him by the avalanche. He 
had prostrated himself in a moment, and, after the ava- 
lanche had passed over us, rose uninjured. Immediately 
there came other avalanches, without any interruption. 
Five different ones swept over us, though without carrying 
us away with them, for we cast ourselves in the freshly 
fallen snow, and fixed our hands and feet as deeply in it 
as we could, to prevent being hurled by them far down 
into the abyss to the left. Not a single instant were we 
safe from avalanches, and we had to be continually look- 
ing to the side of the mountain to watch their approach. 

"About nine we reached the small, old shepherd's cot- 
tage, and, as our strength was now almost totally exhausted, 
we entered it to rest for a while, in order to gain strength 
for the remainder of our journey. We there found some 
wood, with which we made a fire. This hovel was more 

m 

fit for beasts than for men, and we found that it" we 
would reach home we must hurry up as rapidly as possible. 
Cyper did not become warm by the fire, but trembled the 
whole time we were by it. At last he said, 'It is more 
prudent to go. It will help us nothing to stay here. Hut.' 
he added, ' I shall never get to Fend.' About two o'clock 
in the afternoon, when we were not far from Rofenberg, 
Cyper stood still, and, supporting himself by the snow, 
said, ' I can go no further.' It was only about a hundred 



FATE OF A TYROLESE GUIDE. 345 

and fifty steps to the so-called Rothbach, after crossing 
which I had good ground for hoping the way would be 
better. I went on ahead of Cyper now, and tried every 
way to get him to follow me. He did the best he could, 
but could not go further. 'Arouse!' I exclaimed. 'Help 
me, O my God, and give me strength to save his life ! ' 

" He could not move a foot, and I determined to £-0 on to 
Rofen as soon as possible, hoping, should I find any body 
there, to send him after Cyper. It was almost impossible 
for me to advance a single step in the snow. With my 
feet, hands, knees, and arms thoroughly buried in the snow, 
I had to roll and twist myself in order to make any sort of 
a track by which to get my body along. After I had gone 
a little way Cyper called after me, ' Must I die here alone ? ' 
I answered, ' I will go quickly to Rofen, and send people 
to your help.' I now believed that we should be saved. 

" Things now turned out more prosperously. With the 
exception of a space of about five steps, I could go on my 
way without hinderance. In the middle of a forest through 
which I passed, I noticed a man near a bridge. I cried to 
him with all my might. But he did not see or hear me, and 
therefore I had to go nearer to him and repeat my cry. 
He now heard me, and I found that it was that good man 
Ferdinand Klotz, who was astonished beyond measure to 
see me under such circumstances. I said to him, ' Cyper 
is within the Rothbach, and can come no further ! Go 
quickly for him, help him, and let him have no rest, or else 
he will fall asleep. I will go to Rofen and call more help.' 
Thus we separated, and Cyper was therefore not more 
than half an hour's distance from me. 



3-yi LIFE IX THE FATHERLAND. 

" I cannot tell how happy I now was. I said to myself, 
' I shall now get to Rofen easily, and Cyper, too, will be 
saved.' When I reached Rofen I found it was impossible 
to go further. It was three o'clock in the afternoon. The 
only man to be found was Xicodemus Klotz, whom I im- 
mediately sent to Cyper. After I had taken some warm 
milk, and given full directions for the treatment of Cyp- 
er, I continued on my way to Fend, which I reached at 
about four o'clock in the afternoon, after a walk, attended 
with indescribable dangers, that had lasted thirty hours 
continuously. My hands and feet were frozen, and I had 
a peasant man immediately subject them to treatment, for 
he had a secret remedy for my difficulty. I sent on some 
more men for Cyper, so that, if alive, he could not be with- 
out abundance of aid. Poor Cyper, however, stayed where 
I had left him, hoping all the time for help. As soon as 
he saw the first man coming to him, he said, ' Ferdinand, 
have you no brandy?' After the man had reached him, 
and given him a little of the contents of his flask, Cyper 
said, ' I have now drank too much.' Ferdinand Klotz 
admonished him to come along, and encouraged him by 
saying that the way was now short. But Cyper now fell 
into a delirium, and could not stir a foot. He gave two 
sighs, and there died in the snow. His dead body was 
borne by the peasants to my house. Heart-rending, in- 
deed, was to me the sight of the stiff, pale form of him 
who had risked his life for me, and whose spirit was now 
in another world. May every mountain-climber be blessed 
with a guide like him ! " 



DOWN THE INN VALLEY.— INNSBRUCK. 347 



CHAPTER VI. 

DOWN THE INN VALLEY. INNSBRUCK. 

[ T required two more days for me to descend the valley 
■*- of the Oetzt and reach the great Inn Valley, which 
is the main thoroughfare of Northern Tyrol. The Oetzt 
stream gathers strength by frequent tributaries, and after a 
few hours' walking along its bank it is found to have 
assumed the dimensions of a little river. The scenery is 
ever changing, but never dull and unattractive. Some- 
times the river almost disappears in a dark gorge, over- 
hung by half-uprooted fir-trees ; then it spreads out like a 
cheerful mountain lake. The mountains sometimes seem 
like two immense confronting harps, so numerous and 
musical are the high, silvery, thread-like cascades. Occa- 
sionally one of the cliffs overhangs the road, which often 
proves to be a narrow footpath, grooved out by hard labor 
in the past centuries. No vehicles traverse any part of the 
upper course of the valley. 

At Solden the road commences, and when I once more 
saw wagon-ruts, it appeared to me that I had been some 
days on another planet. On the east of Umhausen rises 
the precipice of Angel's Wall, so called from the tradition 
of "the only child of the lord of the castle of Hirschberg 
having been carried off in sight of his parents by an enor- 
mous vulture, and, while they were wringing their hands 
in despair, having been rescued from its talons by an 



14& LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

angel." There is a multitude of such legends in the 
mouths of the peasantry in the Oetzt Valley. Every 
prominent mountain, water-fall, and gorge has its cluster 
of them, and the humble people who relate them think 
you wickedly incredulous if you do not swallow them as 
willingly as they have done. The priests take good care 
to foster their superstitious habits, for they thus strength- 
en their own hold upon the popular mind. 

On reaching the stage-road of the broad and beautiful 
Inn Valley I engaged passage for Landeck, which lies at 
the eastern end. The scenery, during every minute of the 
three hours' ride, was less grand than that which I had 
enjoyed for two or three days previously, but it was much 
more beautiful and tranquilizing. At Brennbuchl dinner 
was served in the hotel where King Frederic Augustus 
of Saxony died, on the gth of August, 1S54. lie had 
been making the tour of Switzerland and the Tyrol, and 
was riding through the last valley of his route. 1' 
sudden turn of the vehicle he fell out, and was mortally 
injured by the horses' hoofs. On being taken to the 
nearest inn, he died. The blood-stained pillow, the un- 
disturbed bed on which he died, the flowers and beautiful 
wreath which he had twined, his little bell, and a number 
of other objects oi interest, are still to W- seen. The room 
and furniture remain just as they were twenty years 
when its loyal occupant breathed his last. 

The parish church of Landeck was built in the 
teenth century, though the same site hail been occupied 
one erected in 1270 Hie 1 istle ■: Landeck is the 
most conspicuous object to be seen, and a magnificent 



■DOWN THE INN VALLEY.— INNSBRUCK. 349 

view may be enjoyed from its windows. It was once the 
home of the founder of the celebrated Schroffenstein 
dynasty, but is now a deserted and gloomy ruin. Many 
Roman coins are still found here. I took a second stage 
from Landeck, late in the afternoon, in order to ascend 
as far as practicable before dark the upper Inn Valley 
toward the Finstermunz Pass. 

The Pontlaz Bridge, over which the road leads, is a very 
interesting object, on account of the important part it has 
played in Tyrolese history. The people have often been 
compelled to defend it against foreign invaders, and they 
have never failed to manifest a heroism worthy of a bet- 
ter cause than the support of the Austrian Government. 
The bridge crosses the Inn just before reaching the vil- 
lage of Prutz, situated on a low, marshy plain at the 
entrance of the Kaunser Valley. This valley — a side- 
piece to the upper Inn Valley, and running off at right 
angles to it — stretches up to the vast Gebatsch Glacier, 
which is estimated at sixty miles long and thirty miles 
broad. One of the most memorable exploits of the Tyr- 
olese, during the eventful campaign of 1809, took place 
near the second bridge. I give the account in Sir Walter 
Scott's words : " The fate of a division of ten thousand 
men belonging to the French and Bavarian army, which 
entered the upper Innthal, or valley of the Inn, will ex- 
plain in part the means by which the victories of the 
Tyrolese were obtained. The invading troops advanced 
in a long column up a road bordered on the one side by 
the river Inn, then a deep and rapid torrent, where cliffs 
of immense height overhang both road and river. The 



350 LIFE IX THE FATHER LAXD. 

vanguard was permitted to advance unopposed as far as 
Prutz, the object of their expedition. The rest of the 
army were, therefore, induced to trust themselves still 
deeper in this tremendous pass, where the precipices, be- 
coming more and more narrow as they advanced, seemed 
about to close over their heads. Xo sound but of the 
screaming of the eagles, disturbed from their eyries, and 
the roar of the river, reached the ears of the soldier, and 
on the precipices, partly enveloped in a hazy mist, no 
human forms showed themselves. At length the voice 
of a man was heard calling across the ravine, ' Shall we 
begin ? ' ' No ! ' was returned in an authoritative voice bv 
one who, like the first speaker, seemed the inhabitant of 
some upper region. The Bavarian detachment halted, 
sent to the general for orders, when presently was heard 
the terrible signal, 'In the name of the Holy Trinity cut 
all loose ! ' Huge rocks and trunks of trees, long • 
pared and laid in heaps for the purpose, began now to 
descend rapidly in every direction, while the deadly fire 
of the Tyrolese, who never throw away a shot, opened 
from every bush, crag, or corner of rock, which could 
afford the shooter cover. As this dreadful attack was 
made on the whole line at once, two-thirds of the enemy 
were instantly destroyed ; while the Tyrolese, rushing 
from their shelter, with swords, spears, axes, scythes, 
clubs, and other rustic instruments which could be 
converted into weapons, beat down and routed the sh.it- 
1 remainder. As the vanguard, which had reached 
Prutz, was obliged to surrender, very tew .>t" the ten thou- 
sand invaders extricated themselves from the fatal pa 



DOWN THE INN VALLEY.— INNSBRUCK. 35 I 

I reached the town of Riecl about dusk, and there spent 
the night. Welcome letters from home — the first for 
nearly three weeks — accompanied with an abundance of 
American news, were sufficient to obliterate all sense 
of weariness, and almost to render me indifferent to the 
superb panoramic view of glaciers which a hill-top near 
the hotel affords. 

Above the town of Stuben the pass of Finstermunz 
begins. There is a fine carriage road chipped out of the 
left side of the mountain, and from this the pedestrian 
can enjoy at his leisure the remarkable scenery which 
this pass, only inferior in its kind to the Via Mala in 
Switzerland, presents from base to summit. The rocky 
eminences overhanging the road are ornamented with 
life-like images of the wild chamois. I thought one of 
them living, and the illusion was not dissipated until I 
found it impossible to frighten him from his cliff. Cas- 
cades fall in graceful beauty from the precipitous side 
of the mountain rising just across the abyss. The infant 
Inn — whose bed in past ages was hundreds of feet higher 
right where the broad, smooth hollows in the rocks are 
yet clearly visible — is fed and strengthened by many a 
cheerful tributary ; but, without waiting to give thanks for 
the help it gets, it hastens on to mingle its strain with 
the harsher notes of the Danube, and afterward to tell its 
mountain story to the far-off Black Sea. 

About ten o'clock in the morning I reached the summit 
of the pass, and looked far down on the web-like bridge 
crossing the Inn. The little castle of Sigmundseck, built 
long ago by Duke Sigmund, cleaves to the rock like a 



33? LIFE IX THE FATHERLAND. 

great, beautiful muscle. There is an inn near by, which 
has a deserted appearance, in perfect harmony with the 
castle itself. The angle where the two stand forms the 
boundary between Switzerland and Austria, and off to 
the right begins the Engadine Valley, which had fairly 
wearied me with its charms two weeks before. On going a 
little beyond the Finstermunz, I noticed the dusty volume 
created by the coming stage ; and from its top could see 
the waving handkerchief of my genial traveling compan- 
ion, from whom I had been separated since the first of the 
week. Unfortunately for me, he had received news which 
required him to shorten his stay abroad, and I was thus 
compelled to complete the Tyrolese tour alone. 

The traveler who has the good fortune to reach Inns- 
bruck at the close of a bright summer day, when the sun 
gilds the near cliffs of Martinswand and the distant peaks 
where the glaciers never melt, receives an impression at 
once peculiar and permanent — and permanent because of 
its peculiarity. I had ridden all day, and the most of it 
on the top of a stage, through the Inn Valley, having 
started in the early morning at Landeck. The whole 
road abounds in most picturesque scenery, and uo lover 
pf nature can trust himself to sleep a half-hour, lest, when 
he wakes up, his guide-book tells him that he has lost 
some hoary, ivied, castellated ruin, or a view of some valley 
branching off at right-angles to the greater one of the Inn. 

The whole of the long road to Innsbruck has a most 
interesting known history, not to mention that which has 
long since passed into the realm of the legendary. \ \o 
pen can ever narrate the full stor) of those lovely 



DO WN THE INN VALLE Y.—INNSBR UCK. 353 

vales, cheerful streams, and scores of castles and rugged 
mountains. The castle of Kronburg keeps long in sight, 
and commands an excellent view both up and down the 
valley. The Petersberg was the birthplace of Margaret 
Maultasch, who often held her court here, and made her 
palace-castle celebrated for beauty, wit, and statesman- 
ship. Her cradle, long preserved as a relic, has now dis- 
appeared. The castle proper is a desolate fragment, and, 
though the most of the dismal ruins of this once proud 
home of princes, with its donjon-keeps, dungeons, and 
oubliettes, has passed into a shelter for bats, there are 
other parts which are still habitable, being occupied by 
the present owner, Count von Wolkenstein. 

The village of Stams is remarkable as the seat of a 
great Cistercian convent. I counted hundreds of win- 
dows as the stage passed by, and caught glimpses of the 
beautiful, quiet avenues formed by the old trees in the 
convent garden. The convent was founded in 1271 by the 
mother of Conradin, the last scion of the house of Hohen- 
staufen, who perished on the scaffold in Naples. His 
mother determined to found an institution where prayer 
might be offered for the soul of her murdered son ; and 
it is said that she even went to Naples and brought his 
body to this place for interment. Had she sought all 
Europe over, she could not have found a more fitting site 
for the location of the institution, for the place was at that 
time in the very midst of an immense oak forest, scarcely 
ever entered by a whisper from the outside world. The 
church and convent were finished in 1284 by Count Mein- 
hard, the second husband of Conradin's mother, who 



354 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

died in 1273, only one year after the commencement 
of the enterprise. Her dust reposes here, as also that of 
the four children who died before her. Twelve scions of 
the proud house of Hohenstaufen, who were originally 
burled in the castle of Tyrol, have been removed hither. In- 
deed, this is the last resting-place of much royal dust. Mein- 
hard himself lies here, and also Frederick of the Empty 
Pocket, his two wives, son, and daughter ; Duke Sigismund 
the Rich, who died in 1495 ; Maria Bianca, second wife of 
the Emperor Maximilian I. ; his son and daughter ; Duke 
Severin of Saxony, Rudolph, Prince of Anhalt, and many 
others. They all lie in a crypt beneath the church. It 
was in the convent that the Emperor Maximilian I. first 
received, in 1497, "the Turkish embassador of the Sultan 
Bajazet, who sent to demand the hand of Maximilian's 
sister, Kunigunde, in marriage, promising to become a 
convert to Christianity." 

The last most remarkable object in the valley of the 
Inn before reaching Innsbruck is the celebrated Martins- 
wand, or Martin's Wall, whose legends can be counted by 
the score. Many of them are firmly believed, and as 
fondly remembered, by the Tyrolese peasants. The face 
of the rock, or rather mountain, fronts the road, and is an 
abrupt precipice of one thousand eight hundred and thirty- 
five feet. It has played an important part in Tyn 
history, the forces occupying its heights almost invariably 
proving masters of the situation. In the war of 1 
Count Arco, the Bavarian general, was shot at its foot by 
.1 Tyrolese rifleman, who hail placed himself in ambush to 
Kill the Electoi ol Bavaria as he passed along the road, 



DO WN THE INN VALLE Y.—INNSBR UCK. 3 5 5 

but, misled by the greater splendor of the Count's dress, 
as he rode beside his master, hit him instead. 

The known history of the Martinswand is very dry and 
dull compai-ed with the celebrated adventure of the Em- 
peror Maximilian — a circumstance which may be half fable 
and half history — to which it owes its celebrity : — " That 
enthusiastic sportsman, led away on one occasion in pur- 
suit of a chamois among the rocks above, by ill-luck missed 
his footing, and, rolling headlong to the verge of the preci- 
pice, was just able to arrest himself when on the brink of 
destruction, by clinging, with his head downward, to a 
ledge of the rock, in a spot where he could neither move 
up nor down, and where, to all appearance, no one could 
approach him. He was perceived from below in this 
perilous position, and, as his death was deemed inevitable, 
prayers were offered up at the foot of the rock by the 
Abbot of Wilten, as though for a person in articulo mortis. 
The emperor, finding his strength failing him, had given 
himself up for lost, when a loud halloo near at hand 
arrested his attention. A bold and intrepid hunter named 
Zips, who had been driven to the mountains to avoid im- 
prisonment for poaching, had, without knowing what had 
happened, also been drawn to the spot while clambering 
after a chamois. Surprised to find a human being thus sus- 
pended between earth and sky, he uttered the cry which 
attracted Maximilian's attention. Finding the perilous 
nature of the case, he was in a few minutes at the emper- 
or's side, and, binding on his feet his own crampons, and 
extending to him his sinewy arm, he succeeded with diffi- 
culty in guiding him up the face of the precipice along 
16 



356 LIFE IX THE FATHER LA XD. 

ledges where, to appearance, even the chamois could not 
have found footing, and thus rescued him from a situation 
of such hopeless peril that the common people even now 
attribute his escape to the miraculous interposition of an 
angel. The spot where this occurred, now hollowed out 
into a cave in the face of the rock, is marked by a crucifix, 
which, though eighteen feet high, is so far above the post- 
road that it is barely visible from thence. It is now ren- 
dered accessible by a steep and rather difficult path, and 
may be reached in about half an hour's walk from Zirl. 
The cave is seven hundred and seven feet above the river, 
and the precipice is nearly vertical from the high-road be- 
low. It is traditionally stated that Maximilian rewarded 
the huntsman with the title of Count Hollauer von Ho- 
henfelsen, in token of his gratitude, and in reference to 
the exclamation uttered by him — which had sounded so 
welcome to the emperor's ears — announcing that relief 
was at hand. From the emperor's pension-list, still in 
existence, it appears that a sum of sixteen florins was 
annually paid to one Zips of Zirl." 

On reaching Innsbruck I went to the Star Hotel, which 
stands on the left bank of the Inn, commanding a fine 
view of the k rger portion of the charming city on the 
other side. Innsbruck has a population oi over fourteen 
thousand. Though it lies really in a valley, it is about 
two thousand feet above the level of the sea. The mount- 
ains, which are several miles distant, rise to a height ot 
six or eight thousand feet above the city, and hence he 

saying, that "the wolves prowling among the mountain 

tops look down into the streets." When the Au-t'ian 



DOWN Till: 1 XX VALLEY.— INNSBRUCK. 357 

emperor visited Innsbruck in 1838, the people spelled his 
name in bonfires upon the side of the mountains, extend- 
ing over a space of four or five miles. 

Innsbruck first appears in history in 1027, and in 1234 
we find it a walled town, attractive to the traveler because 
of its natural beauty, and to the marauding princes be- 
cause of the flourishing trade which had sprung up there. 
The most imposing building in the city is the Franciscan 
or Court Church, in which I attended service on Sunday 
morning. It was a festal occasion, and the large edifice 
could not contain the multitudes of people who thronged 
to it. The music was very fine, and was performed by an 
immense military brass band ; but the mummery of the 
priests and the peculiar devotion of the people were more 
like the gesticulations of the dancing dervishes than the 
worship of people in a Christian land. The greatest ob- 
ject of interest in the church is the tomb of the emperor 
Maximilian I., who ordered by will that a church should 
be erected here, which should be a sepulcher for himself. 
It was commenced in 1553, and finished ten years later; 
but, oddly enough, the emperor does not lie here at all, 
but at Wiener-Neustadt, in the beautiful Gothic chapel of 
St. George, with his faithful friend and counselor, Die- 
trichstein, at his feet. The remarkable sarcophagus in the 
Court Church of Innsbruck, is thus described in Murray's 
" Handbook for Southern Germany " : " The emperor is rep- 
resented in a kneeling posture, with his face turned toward 
the altar, while on each side of the aisles stands a row of 
tall bronze figures, twenty-eight in number, represent- 
ing some of the ' worthies ' of Europe, but principally the 



35 8 LIFE IX THE FATHERLAND. 

most distinguished personages, male and female, of the 
House of Austria. There is something imposing in the 
first sight of these metal effigies of the great of former 
days ; they are of colossal size, skillfully executed ; and 
the elaborate workmanship of the armor and dresses gives 
them an additional interest, as careful types of the cos- 
tume of the sixteenth century. They were modeled and 
cast between the years 1510 and 1561, the work, during 
this period, being frequently interrupted. The principal 
artists employed were Gregory Loftier and his two sons, 
Stephen and Melcbior, Godl, and Hans Lendenstrauch. 
. . . The sarcophagus itself is inclosed with an iron rail- 
ing ; its sides are ornamented with twenty -four bas-reliefs, 
or, rather, pictures in relief, carved in Carrara marble with 
a beauty and minuteness of workmanship not surpassed 
by that of an ancient cameo. They are probably unique 
of their kind. . . . An ascent of a few steps, on the right 
as you enter the church, leads to the Silver Chapel, so 
called from the image of the Virgin, and an altar-piece in 
bas-relief— both of solid silver — which it contains. It 
was built by Ferdinand II., Archduke of Austria and 
Count of Tyrol, as a mausoleum for himself and his wife, 
the famed Philippina Welser — the most beautiful woman 
of her time — with whom he lived happily for thirty years. 
Philippina was the daughter ol Franz Welser, one of the 
wealthy Augsburg patricians. She was born in M 
Ferdinand first saw her ;t the Diet held at Augsburg in 
15.(7, and the toll,, wing year made her his wife. The alli- 
ance was regarded by the Emperor Ferdinand, the arch- 
duke's father, as degrading, and it was not until twelve 



DO WN THE INN VALLE Y.—INNSBR UCK. 359 

years after her marriage that she succeeded in procuring 
access to her father-in-law, when, throwing herself on her 
knees, she so moved him by her tears and beauty that he 
acknowledged her as his daughter, and made her two sons 
margraves. The armor of the archduke is placed aloft 
on a bracket, while his effigy, in white marble, reclines 
upon the tomb ; at the back of which are four marble 
bas-reliefs, masterly productions of art, representing re- 
markable events in which Ferdinand was present : — i. The 
capture of the Elector of Saxony by Charles V. at the 
battle of Miihlberg. 2. Ferdinand appointed Stadtholder 
of Bohemia. 3. Besieging Szigeth, 1556. 4. Leading 
the cavalry against the Turkish forces of the Sultan Soli- 
man. Philippina, who died in 1580, has a separate monu- 
ment, an altar-tomb bearing a recumbent figure in marble, 
and decorated with allegorical bas-reliefs, said to be by 
Colin, but probably the work of his son or one of his 
scholars, representing works of charity and mercy, with 
Innsbruck in the background. In a recess against the 
wall, between these two tombs, are arranged twenty-three 
small bronze statues of saints, all of royal or noble lineage, 
chiefly allied to the Hapsburg family. These statues pro- 
perly belong to the tomb of Maximilian ; they were 
executed by Elias and Hans Loffler, and are fine works of 
art. Under the steps leading to the chapel is the tomb of 
Philippina's aunt, Katharina von Loxau, who is said to 
have been almost as beautiful as Philippina herself." 

It is astonishing what stories the Tyrolese tell of the 
beauty of Philippina Welser ; but if her beauties and vir- 
tues increase as they have done in the last few centuries, 



360 LIFE IN THE FA THERL. IX D. 

and the Tyrol keeps as thoroughly Popish as ever, she 
probably will yet become a saint. One of the Tyrolese 
guides in Innsbruck told me that she was so beautiful, and 
her skin so thin and transparent, that the veins of her 
neck told the color of the wine as she swallowed it. 

In the same church there are monuments to the 
Tyrolese private soldiers and officers who distinguished 
themselves by their bravery in opposing the Emperor 
Napoleon I. The most splendid of these monuments is 
of white Tyrolese marble, being a statue of Andreas 
Hofer, who sealed his love to his country by his blood. 
Hofer was a simple peasant, who gained important vic- 
tories fur Austria, but was afterward hunted by orci. 
Napoleon, betrayed by a peasant, and shot in iSio at 
Mantua. He is represented in the fantastic garb of a 
Tyrolese peasant, holding an Austrian flag in his hand. 
The inscription is, " For God, Emperor, and Fatherland." 
The inscription on the great sarcophagus, erected to the 
memory of the Tyrolese soldiers who died in the same 
cause with Hofer, is in Latin, "Death is swallowed up in 
victory." 

During my brief stay in Innsbruck I also visited the 
Parish Church, the Museum, the beautiful promenades 
along the Inn, and the antiquarian bookstores. Such a 
mass of Romish trumpery as was to lie seen in those 
book with a large admixture of Romish pictures, 

crucifixes, rosaries, and what not. I never care to see 
again. Unless John Foster had a stronger Catholic tinge 
in his bibliomania than Ryland attributes to him. he 
lamb would have been innocent of his CUStomar) "temp- 



DO WN THE INN VALLE Y.—INNSBR UCK. 3 6 1 

tation to buy books," if he had ever had the ill-fortune to 
wander into the antiquarian depositories of Innsbruck. 

After an hour's walk from Innsbruck through the 
Princes' Way, in full view of the great snow-clad mount- 
ains to the south, I reached the castle of Ambras, having 
procured a ticket which guaranteed admission to all the 
objects of curiosity to be seen there. The Tummelplatz 
is the place where jousts and tilting-matches were held 
by the knights in former times. I delayed long in the 
old halls, and wearied the great tinseled guard out of all 
patience by lingering in the balconies and looking down 
on Innsbruck, the beautiful Inn, the bleak Martinswand, 
and a multitude of objects which arrested the eye and 
chained me to the spot. Soon evening came on. I wan- 
dered back to the city by a path leading through fields of 
ripe grain, and spent my last twilight in the Tyrol looking 
down, from the quaint bridge into the restless river Inn, 
and fanned by breezes that brought with them a chill, 
though in midsummer, from those mountain-tops which 
had become familiar by weeks that I had spent within 
view of some of them, and by hours, and even clays, passed 
in the slow but enchanting ascent of others. Who can bid 
adieu without regret to the charming valley of the Inn ? 



362 LIFE IN THE FA THERLAND. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE J I A R T Z . T H E IiROCKEN. 

T EAVING Bremen by a night train, in the summer 

■* — ' of 1S70, we found ourselves in company with a num- 
ber of German Americans who had just returned to the 
fatherland, and had caught the spirit of their adopted 
country, a fact which they exhibited in more ways than 
one, but especially by their hearty singing of " Old John 
Brown," and "Tramp." It was bringing back the old 
clays to hear the familiar notes. 

After catching as many snatches of sleep as we could 
in the stations and in the cars, we reached the picturesque 
town of Wolfen battel, which had once been the residence 
of the Brunswick dukes, but is now in a state of com- 
mercial stagnation. Its old and spacious palace is given 
over to small tradesmen, and its pillars rise from the mud 
and green slime of all that is left of its firmer moat. To 
us the only interest of a halt lay in its celebrated library, 
which contains two hundred thousand volumes and six 
thousand manuscripts. The librarian .showed us many 
mementos of Luther, — his leaden inkstand, one o\ his 
omnipresent beer-glasses, his notes on the Psalms, in his 
own exquisitely neat handwriting, and his revision of his 
translation of the Bible. It is significant that nearly all 
his corrections are confined to the prophecies ol Isaiah 
and Ezekiel. The gentlemanly librarian showed us other 



THE HARTZ. — THE BROCK EX. 363 

literary curiosities, among which were manuscript letters 
of many of the most celebrated German litterateurs, and 
the first edition of Lessing's complete works. It was 
when Lessing was librarian at Wolfenbiittel that he pub- 
lished his celebrated " Fragments," which produced the 
rationalistic conflict in Germany that has not yet ter- 
minated. The present librarian, Dr. Von Weimann, who 
has distinguished himself by his contributions to German 
history, led us through his house and grounds adjoining 
the library, once the home of his celebrated predecessor. 
We saw the room in which Lessing wrote his " Nathan," 
and, across the broad hall, the one where his idolized wife 
died, and out in the garden the fruit-trees planted by his 
own hand. I plucked a few leaves from them as memen- 
tos of the visit. Fortunately, we had a copy of Miss 
Frothingham's translation of " Nathan " with us, and we 
enjoyed our spare time by communing with the trees, 
with the old Jew, Saladin, the Templar, Recha, and the 
other characters of one of the greatest, but not least one- 
sided, of Lessing's productions. 

But Wolfenbiittel is only in sight of the Hartz, and a 
good many up-hill miles lie between it and famous old 
Brocken. We spent an afternoon at Harzburg, the 
hill above which is crowned with the ruins of a 
temple, said to have been dedicated to the worship of 
Wustan, or Donnar, and destroyed by Charlemagne, who 
erected a Christian church in its stead. On the same 
hill is a stately castle, built by the ill-starred Henry IV., 
and made the repository of his treasures. We then 

pushed on to Goslar, the most northern fortified residence 
16* 



364 LIFE IX THE FA THERLAND. 

of the old German emperors, and by far the most inter- 
esting city in the Hartz Mountains. The ancient char- 
acter of Goslar is still well preserved. One finds himself 
in the Middle Ages. The walls are standing, for the 
most part, and nearly all the towers preserve their origi- 
nal shape. One of them forms a portion of the hotel in 
which we lodged, and from its summit we had an excel- 
lent view of the city and of the country for many miles 
around. My own bed leaned squarely against the old 
town wall, and, thanks to the weariness of foot travel ! I 
had no disturbed dreams of tramping invaders and de- 
structive sieges. The romance of my room, however, 
flew to the winds when I found out that the intense heat 
of its atmosphere, inexplicable at first, was produced by 
the cooking for the whole hotel, as the kitchen lay directly 
under it. I was, therefore, compelled to spend nearly ail 
my in-door day time for the two days that we were in 
Goslar with my traveling companions, the Rev. Dr. A. 
Stevens and the Rev. C. S. Eby, who were favored with 
cooler, but less romantic, quarters. 

Every body who goes to Goslar is expected to visit the 
mines of Rammelsburg, about a mile from the city. It is 
said that they owe their discovery t>> the following circum- 
stance : — When the Emperor Otho I., the son oi Henry 

the Fowler, founder of the city, was on the throne, one ol 
his horsemen named Ramm was riding over the hill, 
and a piece of silver ore was knocked out o\ the ground 
by his horse's hoof. It was picked up by Ramm and car- 
ried to the emperor. The emperor rewarded him with a 
gold chain and one thousand pieces of gold, and. sending 



THE HARTZ.— THE BROCKEN. 365 

for Frankish miners, had the mines worked energetically, 
and with great success. They were called Rammelsburg, 
in honor of the discoverer. After being dressed in as dir- 
ty a mining costume as one would wish to see — a Mam- 
moth Cave suit is not to be compared to it, — it would 
have required a familiar eye to detect the identity of any 
of us, so completely was the propria personse of each of 
us concealed by the outlandish and subterranean blouses, 
patched trowsers, and dilapidated pieces of felt in which 
the venerable old dame arrayed us. We entered by the old 
shaft, down which the miners had passed for nearly nine 
centuries, and in due time wound our way through various 
descents, on slippery ladders, to the place where the ore 
is now extracted. Gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, sul- 
phur, vitriol, and alum are taken from almost contiguous 
veins. The water is pumped out and the ore brought to 
the surface by the aid of immense wheels, hundreds of 
feet below ground. But the whole mining process is 
utterly antiquated, and it is not surprising that the mines 
do not pay expenses. 

The ancient cathedral of Goslar was torn down in 
1820, owing to the weakness of its walls. It was built in 
the year 916 by the Emperor Conrad II., and, according 
to all accounts, was very magnificent. Only the side ves- 
tibule is still standing, and bears the inscription : " Propy- 
lseum aed. Cathedr. tuendis antiq. Germ, monum. instatur. 
A. D. 1824." It is now the depository of many articles of 
interest which formerly stood in the original cathedral. 
Among them is the celebrated " Crodo altar," supposed to 
have been used for the worship of the Saxon god Crodo. 



3 r /> LIFE FN Till'. FATHERLASD 

It is made of brass, and was once elaborately studded with 
gems of rare value, but they were taken out by the 
French, who carried the altar to Paris during the Na- 
poleonic supremacy. There are some curious antiqui- 
ties in the Town Hall, the most noticeable of which is 
the " Biting Cat," a cage in which quarrelsome women 
were imprisoned in by-gone times, before their sex had 
laid aside the infirmity of using their tongues to bad ad- 
vantage. The ancient Guildhall of Goslar is now the 
chief hotel, and its facade is ornamented with statues of 
eight of the more celebrated German emperors. As for 
their mechanical execution, perhaps Heinrich Heine was 
not far astray when he said that the}' reminded him of 
•'so many fried university beadles." 

From Goslar we went to the village of Ocker, and be- 
gan the passage through the pleasing valley of the same 
name. Here we were suddenly overtaken by a thunder- 
storm, and were compelled to shelter under some projecting 
rocks, until a change in the wind brought the rain square- 
ly into our faces, and made us search for better protection. 
This we found, after getting pretty thoroughly wet, in a 
shed made of fir-bark. We there built a fire, and after 
resting and getting dry again, spent the remainder of the 
day in walking to Zellerfeld and Clausthal. The real 
ascent ol the Brocken from the south-western side, where 
we made it, begins at I Mcr Teich. There is a tine car- 
riage-mad on the northern side, but we were compelled to 
find our way as besl we could through only pathways, 

and that, too, with a threatening storm above Our heads. 
From sheer weariness, we could say many a time, with 



THE HARTZ.— THE BROCKEN. Z C 7 

Goethe's grotesque company, who went much faster 
than we : — 

" Is our wizard journey ended? 
Is the Brocken yet ascended ? 
Round us every thing seems wheeling. 
Trees are whirling, rocks are reeling — 
All in rapid circles spinning, 
With motion dizzying and dinning.' 

However, we reached the Brocken without undue be- 
wilderment and the feared drenching', and enjoyed the 
rare fortune of an excellent view. We were not very high 
above the sea, only three thousand five hundred and eight 
feet, yet in the very center of the old German legendary 
world. More witches, and giants, and dwarfs are said to 
have lived here than in any other one place in Europe. 
There is not a German boy or girl who has not heard many 
stories of the haunted height, and the German juvenile 
literature of to-day is as abundant as ever in creating new 
and reproducing old. At the right are the " Hexen- 
altar," (Witches' altar,) and the " Teufelskanzel," (Devil's 
pulpit,) on the former of which, as the story goes, human 
sacrifices used to be made to Woden, and the witches still 
come to it to celebrate their May-day eve. There are a 
great many immense boulders near the top of the Brocken, 
and nearly all of them have their names and clusters of 
legends. 

The view is far more extensive than the elevation would 
lead one to expect, and is really very beautiful. It is by far 
the finest prospect in Northern Germany. The whole 
Hartz range stretches right and left, and far off in front 
lie cities and towns in abundance. Hoary old castles peer 



36S life ix THE FA THERLAND. 

up above the towns, which bask in the sunshine at their 
feet like disarmed and sleeping guardsmen. Fields care- 
fully tilled and undivided by fences, extend northward, like 
unrolled, bright-colored ribbons. Over all this charming 
landscape were the spent clouds we had been hastening 
to avoid. Both ends of as perfect a rainbow as I ever 
saw stood far down in the valley, while the arch rose high 
in front of us, above all the lesser Hartz peaks and the 
supreme Brocken. 

By the aid of a glass we could descry our route for the 
morrow. It lay to the right, over a rough path which 
every body declared would require a guide. The most dis- 
tant mountain visible was the " I Iexentanzplatz," (Witches' 
Dancing Place,) lying across the chasm through which the 
sinuous Bode works its way. It is confronted by the 
Rosstrappe, a spot second only to the Brocken in legend- 
ary interest, and a very appropriate point for terminating 
the Hartz tour. Our descent from the Brocken was over 
the same winding way through which Goethe leads Faust. 
Mephistopheles, and the Meteor. But, alas! slow and 
knapsacked pedestrians can hope for no such easy and 
swift traveling as they experienced : — 

"Woods— how swift they vanish from us! 
Trees on trees — how fast they fly us! 
And tlu- cliffs, with antic greeting, 
Bending forward ami retreating, 
Hov they mock the midnight meeting! 
Ghastly rocks grin, glaring on us, 
Panting, blowing, as they shun us!" 



THE WITCHES' DANCING PLACE. 369 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE WITCHES' DANCING-PLACE. 

~"*HE Hartz Mountains are naturally divided into 
-*~ upper and lower, the upper Hartz being that part 
lying west of the Brocken, and the lower the portion to the 
east. Having descended from the Brocken, our road lay 
eastward, at first amid immense forests abounding in 
deer. We finally reached an open country, where we 
passed through the squalid villages of Schierke and Elend, 
(misery.) The latter was no misnomer, for the poverty 
and miserable appearance of the inhabitants, who were 
nearly all charcoal-burners, were quite un-German, and, 
except the begging, worthy of Italy itself. But as the 
country improved in fertility the appearance of the people 
improved with it, and by noon, when we reached Elbinge- 
rode, we found a thrifty class of people, and comfortable, 
cosey dwellings. 

There was nothing that took us to Elbingerode save 
its convenience as a stopping-place. Its inhabitants are 
chiefly miners, if such a term can be applied to people 
who work in- ore that abounds in such large masses as to 
be quarried in the open air. There is not enough of the 
old castle now remaining to enable one to identify its origi- 
nal shape. After a brisk morning's walk of a couple of 
hours we reached a narrow and romantic valley, in which 
are the Baumannshoehle and Bielshoehle caves — the for- 



370 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

mer of which is noted as the place where bones of the 
Great Cave bear, now extinct, have been found, while the 
latter is remarkable for its fine white stalactite.-. An 
American, however, who has groped and crawled for over 
half a day in any of the remarkable caves of his own 
country, need not throw away his time in visiting those of 
Europe. Still, that of the celebrated Adelsberg, in Austria, 
is a notable exception, and no traveler from Vienna to Trieste 
should lose the opportunity of exploring it. After ascend- 
ing from the valley we came to a frightful plateau, where 
we had an excellent view of the Upper and Lower Hart/., and 
an opportunity of hearing some of the simple Hanoverian 
peasantry describe their hatred of Prussia and the increase 
of their taxes, with other burdens, since they had been 
summarily Prussianized. 

In due time we reached YVilhelmsblick, where some 
ingenious man had drilled a passage, at right angles from 
the road, about a hundred feet through the solid rock 
the opposite side of which he had made a neat upward 
path, relieved by little ingeniously devised resting-pla 
to the very top of the mountain. We had a view, on the 
right, of a magnificent amphitheater of almost artificial 
perfection, amid wild, romantic scenery; while on the left, 
we saw the exquisitely winding and cheerful valley of the 
Bode. At Treseburg, which lies in a delightful mountain 
i k, our party were compelled to separate, and I con- 
tinued the tramp alone. 

It was a walk, or rather a difficult climb, o( two hours 

to tin- Hexentanzplatz, or Witches' Dancing-place But 

I had not -one over twenty minutes before regretting ray 



THE WITCHES' DANCING-PLACE. 37 1 

disregard of the advice of travelers and the guide-books 
by taking no guide, for the forest became very thick and 
dark. The beaten path had divided into many lesser ones, 
the most of which were covered with grass and moss, and 
in some places it was difficult to detect any path at all. 
It was then after four o'clock in the afternoon, and my ob- 
ject was to reach the Witches' Dancing-place in time for 
its sunset view ; but there was now every prospect of being 
compelled to return to Treseburg. The maps which I had 
gave but little comfort in the extremity. In fact, I must 
say, that, for at least that one section of the Hartz tour, 
there is no reliable map. I do not speak of the large gov- 
ernment maps, that cover the whole walls of the police- 
offices. In my perplexity I saw a little rough seat, on 
which was sitting a solitary, middle-aged German traveler, 
with knapsack and staff. 

" Where are you going ? " he said. 

"To the Witches' Dancing-place, if I can find it," I 
answered. 

" You may as well give it up ; here are all the maps and 
guide-books, and a compass to boot, and yet I have become 
exhausted in trying to discover the right path. Now I 
am going to find my way down as I came up, if I can, to 
Treseburg again." 

This, to make the best of it, was not a very comforting 
testimony. After some deliberation, however, we conclu- 
ded to put our heads together, and make a desperate trial, 
though my new acquaintance was evidently very weary. 
We had not gone twenty rods before every thing failed 
us, and even my companion's pocket-compass seemed very 



372 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

untrusty at times ; for when we ought to be going up the 
mountain, as we thought, it would incline us down again. 
By his taking one course and myself another, always keep- 
ing within safe hearing, and sometimes meeting again, we 
at last found traces of an old, and now unused, forest-road. 
This was, perhaps, after an hour's uncertain walking. But 
we forgot the toil, for it gave us a gleam of hope ; and 
when we saw a fine bronze statue of a deceased forester, 
mounted on a chaste pedestal of highly polished marble, 
and then caught a glimpse of one of the present foresters' 
little huts, where we enjoyed some milk and black bread, 
and found that we were on the right road after all, and 
that, too, without much unnecessary walking, we enjoyed 
our adventure with exquisite delight ; and now that it is 
all over, but with my companion's pleasant face still like 
a picture before me, I would not exchange the memory of 
it for any other experience during the tour. 

The forester's direction brought us safely to the Witches' 
Dancing-place, where we found the best-appointed hotel 
I had seen since entering the mountains. 

" Shall we not be friends as long as we stay in the 
Iiartz?" said my companion. 

" Most gladly," I replied, "so long as Miir tour remains 
the same." 

"Suppose we take a room together for the night ?" 

"Certainly," said 1 ; and 1 doubt if either ofus ever had 
slept more sweetly than that night, when we occupied the 
same room, each oi us, like the law, assuming the other to 
be honest. 

Before sunsel we had ample opportunity for enjoying 



THE WITCHES' DANCING-PLACE. 373 

the excellent view, by far the most varied, taking all 
things together, in the Hartz, not even excepting that 
from the Brocken. The narrow Bode, apparently more 
beautiful at the outlet than at its rise, had been working 
its way through the rocks, leaving the smoothly-worn 
traces of its current upon the higher ones, and now glis- 
tening and murmuring at the foot of a precipice of eight 
hundred and forty feet, at the top of which we stood. At 
our left were the mountains, combining beauty and gran- 
deur in such rare harmony as can seldom be seen in a 
single picture ; while directly at our right the mountains 
terminate, and beginning with the village of Thale, the 
railroad terminus, you command a view of Halberstadt, 
Wernigerode, Quendlinburg, Blankenburg, (where Louis 
XVIII. lived, from 1796 to 1798, under the name of Count 
de Lille, in perpetual fear of assassination by the French 
Republicans,) and I know not how many other towns and 
villages. Directly across the gorge, and rising nearly as 
high as the Witches' Dancing-place, where we stood, was 
the Rosstrappe, or Horse's Foot-Print, which takes its 
name from the tradition of Princess Brunhilde, who, 
"being pursued by a giant, leaped her horse, which had 
previously been endowed with supernatural strength, across 
the gorge to the opposite cliff, where the charger, as he 
alighted, left the dint of his foot." 

The next morning, after parting from my new friend, 
who desired to visit the Brocken, I went on to Victors- 
hoehe. This point commands a very extensive view of the 
Lower Hartz and Alexisbad, — a quiet and retired spot, 
whose neat hotels owe their patronage to the excellent 



374 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAXD. 

mineral water that flows from the rocks near by. I 
pushed on as far as Harzgerode, in company with a middle- 
aged peasant man. The Hartz peasants have many expres- 
sions which, though the persons using them be strangers, 
are frequently heard on the highways. As we met a 
boy taking bread out to some harvesters, the man with 
whom I was walking addressed him with these words : — 

" A cheerful heart and lively blood." 

The boy replied : — 

" A full heart and good courage." 

The peasant assured me that he had never met the boy 
before. This calls to mind one of the songs which the 
watchmen in some of the Hartz towns sing at night. For 
instance, the night I spent at Zellerfeld the watchman 
blew a horn at ten o'clock under the hotel window, and 
sane: these words : — 



■& 



" Now hear me say, all ye good men, 
The city clock has just struck ten ; 
Take care of fire, put out your light, 
Lest you some danger should invite. 

Praise the Lord, all ye good men ! " 

At four o'clock in the morning either he or one of his 
associates returned, and, after blowing his horn, sang : — 

"The day makes gloomy night our town forsake; 
Come, people dear, be jolly and awake ! 
Praise the Lord ! " 

In the afternoon I took the stage to Nordhausen, a city 
noted, in a literary way, as the birthplace of Justus Jonas, 
Luther's friend, and of Gesenius, the Oriental scholar, 

and, in a spirituous way, for its brandy, In this place, "I" 



THE WITCHES' DANCING-PLACE. 375 

eighteen thousand five hundred inhabitants, the principal 
branch of industry is the manufacture of brandy. It dis- 
tills yearly from forty-two thousand to forty-six thousand 
casks' of brandy, one hundred and eighty quarts being in 
each cask. This quantity is increased, by the addition of 
alcohol, to about eighty thousand casks. There are sixty 
distilleries altogether, and, in 1864, the taxes paid to the 
Government by their owners amounted to one hundred 
and sixty-seven thousand three hundred and ninety-one 
thalers. 



376 LIFE IX THE FATHERLAND. 



CHAPTER IX. 

CASSEL. — A BIT OF ITS ROMANl E. 

HMIK most important place lying between the Hartz 
*- range and Frankfort is the city of Cassel. It was 
here that the Elector, Frederic II., hired, or rather sold, 
his subjects to George III. of England, to help him con- 
quer his revolting American colonies — a traffic which cost 
twelve thousand Hessian lives, and brought twenty-two 
million of blood-stained dollars into the ignoble Frederic's 
treasury. The ruins of an unfinished palace lie in the 
valley below the city, and near them a magnificent bath- 
house, now unused, adorned with allegorical sculptures 
from pagan mythology. From the streets of the city one 
can see the celebrated Wilhelmshohe Forest, where Na- 
poleon III. was a prisoner in the same palace in which 
his uncle Jerome had lived and reveled as king of W 
phalia. The highest elevation in the forest, lying back n\ 
the palace, is surmounted by a large edifice This is 
crowned by a colossal statue of Hercules. The club 
which he holds will contain nine men. 

No one conversant with one of the most touching books 
of recent German literature, William von Humboldt's 
'• Letters to a Female Friend," can walk the quainl 
of Cassel without calling to mind the pathetic s< 
history of thai work. I will give it here, though with re- 
gret at being unable now to recall the name of my chief 
( hi man authority. 






CASSEL.--A BIT OF ITS ROMANCE. 377 

On the 1 6th of July, 1846, a lonely old woman died in 
a wretched house in the Wilhelmshohe Alley, at Cassel. 
She was seventy-five years old, and had gained her sub- 
sistence by her own hands, at work, indeed, which was 
only suitable for young persons of her sex. Her aged and 
trembling fingers had also made delicate artificial flowers, 
and from the workshop of this lonely, sorrowing old wom- 
an went out the most elegant floral adornments for the 
gay society of the city. Many tears and sighs of recollec- 
tion may have accompanied this toilsome labor. For the 
poor creature who was compelled to plait bouquets and 
wreaths for her daily bread had once been a young girl 
of perhaps even greater beauty than the wearers of her 
work. She had also been happy. 

The name of the poor old bouquet woman was Charlotte 
Hildebrand. Her father had been a Hanoverian clergy- 
man in good circumstances, and she had received a care- 
ful training and an almost scholarly education. With her 
nineteenth year she became enthusiastic for " the true, 
the beautiful, and the good ;" read philosophical writings, 
composed poetry, and longed for some ideal friendship. 
Her home was in a lovely part of the mountains rising 
along the Weser, and the romantic ravines, the green 
meadows, the towering oaks, and the thatched peasant 
houses were the familiar, picturesque objects she saw on 
her excursions. She often wandered to the little hunting 
seat of Baum, belonging to the Baron of Buckeburg,' which 
lay in calm solitude in the green wilderness. Here Herder 
had lived. He was the favorite of the general and phi- 
losopher William von Schaumburg Lippe, and the friend of 



37§ LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

the latter's amiable lady — a princely pair whom the older 
Mendelssohn honored, and has described in his writings. 
A monument was erected over the united graves of this 
couple, who were bound together in a remarkably happy 
marriage, and this was a place of pilgrimage in those 
times for prominent poetical and enthusiastic natures. 

The minister's lovely daughter, too, fed her youthful 
imagination with dreams of an ideal marriage, but had not 
the least presentiment that they would never be realized. 
The memories connected with the hunting castle of Baum, 
near Buckeburg, proved to be the pleasantest pictures 
her lonely old age. Other beautiful parts of the mount- 
ains fringing the Weser were also visited by the young 
girl when she was accompanied by her parents, who. in 
accordance with the custom of the times, paid an annual 
visit to some of the watering places. It was thus that 
Charlotte Hildebrand became acquainted with the neigh- 
boring Rehburg; with its incomparable fir-forests and 
meadows ; with the lovely Eilsen, which, in the deep 
ravine, with its red-tile roofs, looked like the exterior of .1 
fresh apple amid green leaves ; and, finally, with Pyrmont, 
then the most fashionable watering-place. 

Under the linden archway of the Pyrmont avenue 
once sat with her father upon a bench near the cool 
fountain, when a youth approached and seated himself 
be ide them, lie hail a threadbare coat, hut gave evi- 
dence ol good manners; he was homely, but he had an 
intellectual look. People in Germany easily becam< 
quainted with one another in these days at the watering- 
pla< os ; they were not so distrustful ol each other as they 



CASSEL.—A BIT OF ITS ROMANCE. 379 

are now, and in a few minutes the beautiful young girl 
had led her neighbor into a deeply philosophical conversa- 
tion. She listened to his words as if they came from a 
better and previously undreamed-of world, and he was 
pleased with the lovely being who could listen so intelli- 
gently and speak so suggestively. The clergyman, who 
was likewise charmed by the youth, whom he took for a 
student from Gottingen, invited him to dinner, and they 
all entered the dining-hall together. It was there discov- 
ered that the enthusiastic speaker was in reality a Gottin- 
gen student, but a very eminent one, none other than 
William von Humboldt, of Berlin, the brother of Alex- 
ander von Humboldt. 

It is well known that at that time, and later, William 
von Humboldt possessed a very plain-looking exterior ; in 
his best coat he was still gray, small, and thin ; and how 
must he have appeared in his dusty and worn traveling 
suit? But his young friend had quickly recognized his 
mental beauty, and even after the lapse of half a century 
spoke of the clear repose of his nature, of the salutary 
effect of his entertaining conversation, of her deep and in- 
effaceable impressions, and of the sublime emotions that 
he then awakened in her. 

During three happy days of a free, unemployed life at a 
watering-place, the young girl was frequently thrown into 
Humboldt's society, and when he took his departure he 
wrote, according to the custom then prevalent, a pathetic 
sentiment, in her album, but did not utter a word express- 
ive of the real feelings of his heart. She herself felt infi- 
nitely enriched, mentally, by his conversation, yet she was 
17 



380 LIFE IN THE FA THERLAND. 

too modest, too true and feminine, to cherish a hope of a 
nearer relation with the prominent and intellectually im- 
portant youth, in whom she already recognized the future 

celebrity. 

This meeting took place on the 16th of June, 1788. 
Humboldt had expressed his intention of visiting the 
parsonage in the following August ; but he never went, 
having remained longer than he had expected with Jacobi 
in Pempelfort, which was then the gathering place of many 
of the great intellects of the day. Many a time did she 
stand at the gate of the small manse door-yard, over- 
grown with rose-trees and shrubs, and look out for Hum- 
boldt's visit. She has described somewhere her parental 
home, and its exquisite situation amid the beauties 
nature ; a little brook rippled close by the garden hedge, 
and a shaky stile led into a meadow surrounded by bushes. 
It was here that she loved to direct her steps when she 
wished to be alone with her dreams. The autumn mist 
would undulate like a vail in the moonlight, and call up 
Ossianic pictures before the eyes of the dreamer. In the 
quiet of her own chamber she would read her treasured 
album leaf : — 

"A sense tor the true, the beautiful, and the good, en- 
nobles the soul and makes the heart happy; but what is 
even tli is feeling without a sympathetic soul with whom 
we can share it? WlLLIAM VON HUMBOLDT. 

•• Pyrmon r, 178 

lint the "sympathetic soul" never came. Instead ol 
thai there came .1 Doctor Diede, and he sued urgentl) 



CASSEL.—A BIT OF ITS ROMANCE. 381 

Charlotte Hildebrand's hand. She would fain have given 
him a refusal, but her parents found no fault with him, and 
desired, nay, almost commanded, that she should accept 
him. It was the mode in earlier days in Germany, and 
is even now, to marry off the daughters very early. 

Charlotte Hildebrand entered into the union without any 
inclination on her part ; and when she was scarcely twenty 
years of age she removed to Cassel with her husband, and 
henceforward lived as Madame Diede. The marriage 
proved an unfortunate one, and, after five years, the two 
were divorced. She herself narrates this event with sad- 
ness : " I was married in the spring of 1789, lived but five 
years in this childless union, and never married again." 
Three years after her own marriage, in 1792, William von 
Humboldt married a rich heiress, Miss von Dachroden, 
who charmed many men by her intellectual acquirements. 
The. marriage was perfectly happy and harmonious. They 
had three sons and three daughters. William von Hum- 
boldt always spoke of his wife in terms of the highest 
esteem and love, and his testimony suffices to refute the 
slanders, now whispered and now outspoken, which have 
been made against her. 

By her divorce Madame Diede lost her secure position 
as wife ; and in the troublous years under the Napoleonic 
supremacy she lost her whole fortune. She then lived 
some time in Brunswick, where the good-hearted duke 
promised her compensation for her losses ; but he fell at 
Waterloo, and could not fulfill his good intentions. To- 
tally without means of support, no longer young, but sickly 
and forsaken, Madame Diede was nearly driven to despair, 



LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

and did not sec the slightest prospect of securing aid. 
One day she read in the newspapers an article eulogizing 
William von Humboldt, who was then engaged as pleni- 
potentiary of the King of Prussia at the Congress of 
ma. The precious recollection of the three happy 
days in Pyrmont gave her courage, in her great need, to 
apply to the now celebrated and powerful man. She 
began, with many misgivings and tears, the following 
letter :— 

" Not to your Excellency, not to the Royal Prussian 
Minister — no, I write to the still unforgotten and unfor- 
gettable friend of ray youth, whose image I have cher- 
ished in my mind for many, many years ; who never heard 
again from the young girl whom he once met. with whom 
he spent three happy days, the memory of which still 
elevates me and makes me happy. The name upon which 
the world looks with such great expectations, the position 
in which you, through your intellectual capacity, have 
been placed, made it not difficult for me to hear of you 
frequently, and to accompany you with my thoughts. I 
have preserved the dear little album-leaf more carefully 
than any of the little hoi}- relics of youth, as the only 
joy ..I life which fate awarded me. This leaf, which I 
big of you to return, will call up to your Excellency an 
acquaintance which the great pictures and events ^( your 
lite will long ago have erased. In feminine natures such 
impressions are deeper and less mutable than they can 
ever be with others, the more so when they — what 
si ruples could withhold me, after twenty-six years, from 
giving you this proof of veneration? — were the firsl un- 



CASSEL.—A BIT OF ITS ROMANCE. 383 

recognized emotions of awakening intellectual love. For 
the youth of a woman and the development of her charac- 
ter, the object to which the earliest feelings are attached is 
of the highest importance. Feelings change with time, 
but the cherished image once deeply engraved within us 
never fades away. On this loved image, which appeared 
my ideal of manliness and greatness, I rested. Here I 
reposed when I was well-nigh sinking under the weight 
of my hard life ; here my courage rose when my faith in 
humanity was shaken. Believe me, ever dear friend, I 
have ripened amid great tribulation — not dishonored, nor 
profaned by unworthy feelings." 

Thus did the poor soul admit the veneration and love 
which had made her once happy in beautiful Pyrmont, 
and which she had concealed for a quarter of a century. 

The Prussian Minister replied to her letter on the same 
day upon which he received it. He was deeply touched 
and surprised by this recollection of youth,, and a certain 
regret might have passed for a moment through his soul, 
that the once lovely creature had withered unknown and 
unthought of by him. He felt at the same time the duty 
of aiding the unfortunate being who trusted in him so 
implicitly. He wrote to her a letter full of most heart- 
felt sympathy and the noblest delicacy ; he persuaded her 
to rely solely on his care ; and really compelled her to 
accept a sum of money to alleviate her most pressing 
necessity. Her pride, however, allowed her this only so 
long as her sickness continued. At Humboldt's express 
wish she went to G.-ttingen, having been previously in 
Cassel. She followed his advice to take care of her own 



3 §4 LIFE IX THE FATHERLAXD. 

health, but when she recovered her strength she returned 
to Cassel, and began her toilsome labor in making bou- 
quets and wreaths. It was only when Humboldt pleaded 
urgently that she concluded to accept a small pension 
from him, which, being paid regularly, greatly assisted in 
obtaining her daily bread. But there was another gift of 
her friend Humboldt which furnished her real comfort and 
imperishable food for her mind — the letters which he 
began to write, and continued uninterruptedly for twenty 
years. These have since become the property of the 
educated world, and serve as a book of consolation for 
mam - isolated hearts. Who does not know William von 
Humboldt's " Letters to a Female Friend?" The aged 
minister wrote with the noblest tenderness of feeling and 
affecting gallantry, comforting her, inciting her to intel- 
lectual activity, and communicating to her all that came 
within the scope of his feeling and observation. The neg- 
ative spirit of the times has often tried to ridicule the noble 
letter-writer on account of attentions to a poor old woman. 
The motive is easily explained, when we remember that 
nothing attaches a man so firmly to another as the con- 
sciousness of making a soul happy. This consciousness 
Humboldt could have, in the fullest measure, in regard to 
his friend ; his intellectual relation to her constituted the 
only ray of light of her otherwise dark life. 

Humboldt saw his aged friend twice again in lite. The 
two hearts enjoyed in sadness together the faded recol- 
ions of their youth; and after this their correspond- 
ence was even ol a more cordial character than before. 
Nobody ever thought, until the publication of the •• 1 . 



CASSEL.—A BIT OF ITS ROMANCE. 385 

ters," that Humboldt had ever sought out the lonely, 
miserable dwelling of the poor, forgotten, and once de- 
spised Madame Diede ; and even the few friends whom 
she possessed in Cassel never heard about the occurrence. 
She retained the treasured correspondence most sacredly ; 
and it was not until after Humboldt died that she made 
it known, believing it to be her duty then to surrender 
the rich intellectual treasure for the benefit of her contem- 
poraries and posterity, and not selfishly keep all to herself. 
She entered with zeal into the publication of Humboldt's 
letters, first overlooking them, almost too anxiously, for 
fear that a possible indiscretion in judgment should es- 
cape. A young literary person of that period, Theresa 
von Bacharacht, assisted her in this work, and received 
the letters in return for support she had earlier given to 
the poor old creature. 

Theresa von Bacharacht had made the acquaintance of 
Madame Diede as teacher, and had become enthusiastic 
for the intellectual and uncomplaining sufferer, who, in her 
joy at her young admirer, sent Humboldt a very flatter- 
ing description of her. Madame Diede lived more than 
ten years longer than her friend and benefactor, but she 
had afterward the needed comfort in her old age of 
receiving from Alexander von Humboldt the pension 
secured to her by his brother William, and which was 
punctually paid to the day of her death. Few literary 
friendships, it must be confessed, have had so romantic 
a beginning, so faithful a continuance, and so happy a 
close. 



386 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 



CHAPTER X. 

TWO RESTS. OLDENBURG AND HELIGOLAND. 

\y\7"I'- passed a brief Whitsuntide rest during one of 
* * our Bremen years in old Oldenburg, the capital 
of the grand duchy of the same name. It lies north-west of 
Bremen, and is separated from Holland by a narrow Prus- 
sian strip. A ride of an hour and a half by rail, through 
a level tract of turf country, brought us to the quiet, easy- 
going city. It has all the characteristics, soldiers in- 
cluded, of an oldtime German capital. The present grand 
duke, Peter Frederic Augustus, who is very much beloved 
by his people, does not occupy the palace proper, but a 
smaller and newer building, which, in point of style and 
size, is surpassed by many of our better .American homes. 
For generations the fatality of short life and sudden death 
seems to have attended all the duchesses and their chil- 
dren occupying the real palace, and for this reason the 
present grand duchess will on no account live in it. It is 
consequently given over to distinguished visitors and state 
occasions, the ducal family inhabiting the less pretentious 
building elsewhere. 

The old palaee is very large, and many of its rooms are 
tiol inferior to those of more celebrated royal residences 
in the great capitals. When we went through it a I 
suite was in process of refitting for the widow ofOtho, the 
ex-king oi Greece, fhe Augusteum is a neat building, 



OLDENBURG AND HELIGOLAND. 387 

containing" the few masterpieces of painting which the 
present grand duke has had the good taste and liberality 
to collect. One of the most celebrated and interesting 
objects in Oldenburg, however, is the remarkable linden- 
tree in the cemetery. Its branches have all the general 
appearance of roots, being gnarled and inclined down- 
ward. It is from eight hundred to a thousand years old, 
and stands on an elevation just inside the cemetery. The 
legend of this tree is, that a beautiful and good young girl 
was unjustly accused of crime by a young nobleman who 
could not win her affections, and, to avenge himself, se- 
cured her condemnation to death by false testimony. On 
the spot of her execution she broke off a switch from a 
tree, and, inverting it, stuck it into the ground, and said 
that, as it would finally become a tree, and its roots would 
grow above ground, so would it be a constant witness to 
her innocence. Her last words were, " I know that my 
Redeemer liveth," which are now inscribed in large gilt 
letters on one side of the gateway of the cemetery. The 
nobleman, after her death, repented his crime, declared 
her innocence, and died of remorse. His last words were, 
"O, eternity is long!" which are inscribed in similar char- 
acters on the other side of the gateway. The two inscrip- 
tions are very prominent, and meet the eye of every one 
who enters the cemetery. 

During the summer the grand-ducal family occupy a plain 
and small cottage in Rastede, a little town lying about 
twenty minutes' ride by rail west of Oldenburg. Though 
there is a palace of no inconsiderable size at Rastede, the 
grand duke does not occupy it, but leaves it to his visitors, 
17* 



388 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

friends, and state occasions. The grounds lying around 
the palace are very large, and abound in game. The sta- 
bles contain sixty-nine horses, each one having its own 
harness, with name attached. The ex-queen of Greece, 
like her brother, the grand duke, is very fond of horses, 
and, when she makes a visit to Oldenburg, has the repu- 
tation of signalizing it by killing several of- her brother's 
horses by fast riding ; and no wonder, for she is said some- 
times to keep pace on horseback with a passenger train 
of cars. On the Saturday morning that we strolled 
through Rastede the two young princes took a ride at 
eleven o'clock, when six horses were led up to the front 
door, and, just as the clock struck, the eldest made his 
appearance, clad in a suit of light blue. He bowed pleas- 
antly to the few bystanders, and was soon off at a quick 
pace, leading his five attendants. His younger brother, 
who is quite delicate, did not ride that morning, but 
amused himself by boyishly peeping in at the windows 
and doors as we were guided through his father's humble 
summer residence. This place is a model of simplicity. 
The ioom of the grand duchess abounded simply in fa- 
miliar books and the photographs of her friends, anil 
neither in her room nor in any oilier was there the slight- 
est evidence of luxury. Even the grand duke's study had 
no more books than I have often seen on an American 
sophomore's bookshelf, and his old quill-pens had been as 
economically pared as if his land were not celebrated for 
the best geese in Christendom. 

The entire section of flat land around the city of Olden- 
burg is singularly devoid ^\ interesting ruins. Tin- Hude 



OLDENBURG AND HELIGOLAND. 389 

Cloister, which is reached by a half hour's walk from a 
little station between Bremen and Oldenburg bearing the 
same name, is a notable exception. It is not unlike Ken- 
ihvorth Castle, and is not less remarkable for historical 
associations. The chief part of the ruin consists of an 
immense brick wall, containing many fine windows and 
graceful archways, the whole perforated here and there by 
trees, and crowned by ivy of great age and almost fabu- 
lous size. The Cistercian Cloister of Hude, according to 
the most reliable accounts, was founded in the year 1236. 
Because of its possessing a picture of alleged miraculous 
power, it became a place of frequent pilgrimage in the 
Middle Ages. It received many valuable gifts, and in time 
grew very rich. In the fourteenth century it was greatly 
enlarged, and had three hundred cells, besides chapel, 
refectory, dormitory, and many adjoining buildings. 

About the middle of the fifteenth century the decline of 
the cloister began. It was finally destroyed by Francis, 
the proud bishop of M "nster, whose love of fine horses 
led him to demand of the proprietors of the cloister two 
excellent ones, and who, on his demand being refused, led 
an army against the great edifice, and destroyed it, the 
monks escaping only by a subterranean passage. The 
ruins lie adjacent to the beautiful grounds of Herr von 
Witzleben, a nobleman of fine taste. The only place 
where I happened to see the American sweet-smelling 
calycanthus floridus on the continent was on these grounds, 
where there was a number of large bushes. 

By walking two hours beyond the ruins, we reached a 
German primeval forest. While some of the oaks are of 



390 LIFE IX THE FATHERLAND. 

late growth, others arc of unknown age and extraordinary 

dimensions. 1 here is one which goes by the name of 
the " Big Oak." It is not very high, but measures thirty- 
two German feet in girth. It is a place of frequent re- 
sort in fine weather, and the inclosed grounds around it 
are seldom free from excursion parties from Bremen, Ol- 
denburg, and other places. A plain repast of eggs and 
black bread, in a peasant's thatched cottage, was a wel- 
come termination to an interesting and laborious Whit- 
suntide day, and furnished an occasion for learning more 
of the household and agricultural life of the North- 
German peasant than could have been gained by a great 
many books of travel, even including the excellent sketches 
of Dr. Kohl himself. 

I do not recall any excursion we made, during our resi- 
dence in Germany, of more peculiar interest than the one 
to Heligoland. It is a little island in the North Sea. 
reached from Bremerhafen or Hamburg by steamer, after 
a sail of five hours. It is a triangular chunk of red clay, 
rising perpendicularly two hundred feet above the water, 
with its sides hollowed out into fantastic archways and 
grottoes by the intruding sea. It cannot be measured by 
miles, but by feet. Its greatest length is six thousand 
feet, and its greatest breadth is two thousand. I walked 
around the whole island in twenty minutes. On the 
southern side a piece <<\ low land makes out into the water, 

and only here a landing can be effected. The Lowland 

overed by a village of one hundred houses, chiefly 

hotels and lodging houses. The few shops contain mostly 



' OLDENBURG AND HELIGOLAND. 391 

marine curiosities, plain groceries, and articles for bathing. 
You ascend, by a flight of one hundred and ninety steps, to 
the Upperland, where the prospect is very fine. We lodged 
in the " City of London," which stands on the very brink 
of the precipice. The village on the Upperland con- 
tains the church, the governor's residence, the light-house, 
and an old tower. The governor is generally a retired 
officer, and England has a plenty of such easy positions 
for those who have done her good service. The present 
governor is a genial gentleman, and one of the few out of 
the " six hundred " who returned from the charge of the 
Light Brigade at Balaklava. There are five hundred 
houses on the Upperland, nearly all of which have flowers 
in the windows and little door-yards. On the whole island 
there is not a single horse or donkey. Every body can 
walk in the middle of the narrow streets with impunity, 
and the only sound that you hear is either the occasional 
salute on the arrival of a steamer, or the town-bell, which 
rings at three o'clock every afternoon for every body to 
eat his dinner. There are about five hundred sheep and 
but two cows on the island. The trees are few and 
stunted ; but ample compensation for the absence of shade 
is made by the constant sea breeze which often amounts 
to a gale. More than once it required more strength than 
lay in my two arms to open and close our front door, so 
high was the wind during the ten days we were there. 

This little speck upon the map has a most interesting 
history, though down to the fifteenth century much of it 
is only legendary. Peter Saxe, a historian of North-Fries- 
land, holds that Heligoland is the "wonderful island" of 



392 LIFE IN THE FA THERLAND. 

Virgil's " ALneid," and that it is mentioned bv Tacitus 
under the name of Hertha. Helgo, after many a love ad- 
venture, is said to have given his name to it. According 
to one legend, St. Ursula came to Heligoland with eleven 
thousand virgins, but she and her attendants were perse- 
cuted, and even killed, by the idolatrous people. As a 
punishment, the greater part of the island was sunk into 
the sea. The ancestors of the present inhabitants were 
unquestionably of Frisian origin, and, like all the Normans, 
pirates. The castle in which Radbod, one of their great- 
est chiefs, lived, stands on the old maps as a cloister bear- 
ing the name of Radbodsburg. A "later prince, Eilbert, 
was baptized, and afterward established a cloister. Like 
all the Frisian islands, Heligoland belonged to the Duchy 
of Schleswig, and passed with the latter into the hands of 
Denmark in 1/ 14. It remained Danish until the great 
European disruption caused by Napoleon I., when it was 
taken from Denmark by England, in 1807. Ever since 
then it has been an English possession. 

The principal occupation of the humble folk is fishi 
and their chief markets are Hamburg and Bremen. Wreck- 
ing is likewise a very important source of revenue. I have 
the authority of a German writer for saying, that, down to 
the present century the Heligoland pastor implored the 
Lord every Sunday morning to send his people a new 
supply of shipwrecks. The Heligolanders are of very 
different physiognomy from the Germans. The women 
are of graceful carriage, line form, clear complexion. pleas- 
anl and cheerful expression, and regular features. All t lie 
early and later writers speak of them as remarkable for 



OLDENBURG AND HELIGOLAND. 393 

beauty. The men are tall and stalwart. For seafaring 
people, they are the most upright I ever met with. We 
had a great many conversations with different persons, 
and found them all intelligent and good-principled. Their 
good morals are attested by all the writers on the island. 
If further proof were needed, it is found in the fact that 
the total police force for the two thousand five hundred 
inhabitants is only six English marines. During the late 
American war a number of the people went to the United 
States, and entered the naval service on the side of the 
Government. At least one Heligolander was in the army, 
and had the rank of major. He fell at his post in North 
Carolina. I noticed a fishing boat which bore the name 
of " Washington." 

During the early part of the present century, there ex- 
tended from the southern end of the island a long tongue 
of land, the extremity of which was a high sand-bank. But 
the sea broke over this strip, and the bank, which is now 
greatly reduced in size, constitutes an island of itself, and 
is a mile distant from Heligoland. It is on this little 
beach, or dunne, that all the sea-bathing takes place, ex- 
cept in very bad weather. The bathers are rowed over in 
boats every day from Heligoland. The hours for bathing 
are from eight until two in the afternoon. The American 
who happens to be there, and witnesses the decorum, and 
absence of all ostentation and dissipation, will be forced 
to draw a comparison very unfavorable to his own country- 
men between the manner in which the German visitors 
to a watering-place conduct themselves, and such scenes 
as we often witness in America. I never saw, for exam- 



394 LIFE IN THE F. I THERLAND. 

pic, the first instance of intoxication on the part of either 
visitor or native. The contrast in expense is even more 
marked. 

The cost of a comfortable bed-room and sitting-room, 
with breakfast, is ten thalers a week. We dined and 
took tea in the hotel, or at the fine restaurant down at the 
landing, or anywhere else we pleased ; but, in either case, 
dinner cost about half a thaler, and tea a quarter of a 
thaler. The bath, including the sail to and from it, cost 
another half-thaler. The daily expense of each person 
might be safely reckoned at less than three Prussian 
thalers, or about two dollars in American gold. 

Each house is surrounded by a lane or alley, thus con- 
stituting a block of itself. The brick church has immense- 
ly thick walls, and is of rude architecture. The pulpit is 
halfway up to the ceiling, and the ceiling itself so painted 
that it resembles gaudy furniture-calico. The long collec- 
tion-bag, made of velvet, is one hundred and three years 
old, and has a noisy little bell attached to it. We could 
see no other purpose for the bell than to wake people up 
when the bag with which it is connected is handed around 
for contributions. Whenever any one dropped his offering 
into the bag the collector bowed his head, as much as to 
say, "Thank you." At the service we attended, the 
pastor read the announcement of the engagement of 
two worthy young Heligolanders, and elaborately ex- 
horted the congregation to pray for them, in view of 
the important relation into which they had. entered. 

Think of the engagemenl of young Mr. S . of Forty- 
ninth-street, to Miss T — , of Fifth Avenue, which had 



OLDENBURG AND HELIGOLAND. 395 

been concluded only two days before, announced by their 
respective pastors to a large congregation on Sabbath 
morning. 

I heard a sermon by the celebrated Rev. Dr. Gerok, the 
chief preacher of Southern Germany, and author of the 
homiletical portion of one of the volumes of Lange's 
" Bible Work," and of those exquisite poetical works, 
" Palm Leaves " and " Pilgrim Bread," now re-published 
in London. The grave-yard about the church has some 
very interesting tomb-stones. The names on them are 
chiefly Danish and Frisian. One poor-box serves for 
the whole island. It is stationed in a conspicuous place, 
with this inscription, from the son of Sirach : " Extend 
your hand to the poor, that you may be richly blessed." 



39^ LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 



CHAPTER XI. 

GERMANY'S ATHENS. 

1^1 1 E first time I visited the Thuringian Forest, a re- 
■*■ gion rich in literary and historical associations, was 
in the autumn of 1857, in company with the Rev. Dr. 
William A. Bartlett, of Chicago. We were then students 
at Halle, and lodged under the roof of good Erau Midler, 
with Poles, Hungarians, Germans, and Americans as 
neighbors. Our home was a Babel only in sound, not in 
heart. Having agreed on our excursion, we spent a few 
hours in supplying ourselves with every requisite for a 
week's tramp. Our knapsacks were faultless, and not only 
then, but many a day afterward, they did us excellent 
service. Since then the years have passed by — kindly 
to both of us — and though I have visited the chinning 
Forest several times since, nothing has removed the 
lightful recollection of the companionship and enjoyment 
of the first. 

Every reader of " L'Allemagne" will recall the enthu- 
siasm with which Madame de Stael speaks of charming 
little Weimar, the first important point in the Thurinj 
tour. She could well say, " Weimar, more than any other 
( ierman principality, makes one feel." It stood alone, then, 
as the literary center of the continent. Herder had just 
died ; but Schiller, Goethe, and Wieland were living, and 
formed the ornament and pride of the little capital .i'.u\ 



GERMANY'S ATHENS. 397 

court of Saxe- Weimar. The Grand Duke Charles Augustus 
had gathered around him the greatest men in Germany ; 
and his kindness toward his distinguished countrymen is 
one of the most striking instances of the special honor 
given by a ruler to the nobility of mind since the days of 
the Emperor Augustus, of a greater capital. As Horace 
and a large group of literary celebrities were favorites of 
the Augustus who lived beside the Tiber, so did Goethe 
and Schiller receive the attentions of the humbler Augus- 
tus, who held his quiet court in the Thuringian Forest. 

It was no wonder whatever that Weimar was the place 
from which the young author first expected a criticism on 
his maiden production. It was at once the study, the 
studio, and the sanctum of the German land. Madame de 
Stael held that the prevailing taste of the place was liter- 
ary, and, as a proof, said, " The women are devoted dis- 
ciples of the gifted men, and are constantly employed in 
literary labors, considering these the most important pub- 
lic interests." But little Weimar is different now from 
what it was in the closing years of the last century. The 
sun shines as brightly on the neighboring hill-tops, and 
the many mountain streams are coursing as cheerfully as 
ever toward the ocean ; but of the great men who once 
lived there we can only visit their old homes, stand beside 
their last resting-places, and pluck from their graves a sprig 
of myrtle or ivy for the sake of the dead. The very appear- 
ance of the people is different from that of the citizens 
of most German towns. The more intelligent still hold 
in memory the humble greatness of their home, and the 
most casual observer can see in their very faces that they 



398 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

are proud of their little city, and of the part it has played in 
the history of literature. The true Weimarian expects 
visitors, and is glad to see them. The traveler, then, should 
visit the place with the spirit of a welcome guest — as much 
so as if he were going to sit by a friend's fireside. He 
should not walk about the quiet streets as if he had but two 
hours to devote to the little city, and must then be off for 
another place. On the contrary, he must find a lodging- 
place, set his pilgrim-staff in the corner, take his knapsack 
from his shoulders, and prepare himself for a friendly visit. 
Around Weimar are many beautiful hills and vales. 
For the purpose of enjoying them we took a iandom walk, 
and left the city to our left. After passing through a 
forest of well-trimmed linden-trees the path grew winding, 
and led through a passage or stairway cut in the solid 
rock. A narrow foot-bridge spanned a deep-blue, hasty 
stream, and then the path divided into two or three 
more. We were now at the edge of a beautiful meadow- 
vale. The grass was green and fresh, save in little patches 
where the morning sun had not yet dried the frost We 
knew not which of the paths to choose, for they all seemed 
to be equally well trodden. A hou.se stood on the opposite 
hill. The November morning was cool, but no smoke a 
from either one of the two little thatched chimneys. There 
was no quiet farmer walking about the yard and smoking 
his pipe, as one would see at almost ever)- Country resi- 
dence in that part of Germany. In tact, there was no 
appearance ol life and happiness. The house was exceed- 
ingly plain, ami the coarse gravel used in rough-casting it 
gave a very irregular surface to the exterior of the walls. 



GERMANY'S ATHENS. 399 

There was a rustic lattice-work attached to the house, 
completely surrounding it, and extending from ground to 
roof. There were many dead vines hanging to the lattice, 
but in the midst of them was one which was living, 
although neglected. A narrow window was obstructed 
by cobwebs, and the door, hung with long, old-fashioned 
hinges, was held by a very heavy, rusty lock. 

This was Goethe's country home. Here he spent his 
summers in the evening of his life. The first front gate 
by which we tried to enter the yard was locked, but the 
other was open, and we went in and explored the grounds. 
The inclosure to the garden, or rather grove, is a hawthorn 
hedge. But it is not what the Englishman would call a 
hedge, and is by no means a fair specimen of the German 
heckc, which is always neatly trimmed. Once this Goethean 
hedge had been well cared for ; but the branches were after- 
ward permitted to grow in all their wild waywardness. The 
few acres embraced in the hedge present as many varieties 
of scenery and appearance as can conceivably be embraced 
in such a small extent of land. From one end of the 
house stretches out a little level piece of land, which is 
used, perhaps, by some neighboring family for a flower 
garden. Low shelves extend along the inside of the hedge, 
where, when we visited the premises, many varieties of 
the chrysanthemum were spread out to dry. At the end 
of a little bed of flowers is a square block of stone, which 
serves for the support of a huge stone ball. There is no 
commemorative inscription on either, but they were placed 
there to mark one of Goethe's tavorite spots. There 
are several other places in the grove, however, which 



400 LIFE IN THE FA THERLAND. 

claim the same honor ; and none can mistake their mean- 
ing, so plainly and unmistakably are they marked. A few 
rods distant is a beautiful arbor, where the trees which 
encircle a round space are laden with long-neglected vines. 
In this rustic nook is a stone table. There is a seat by 
the side of it ; and here, too, is another spot where the 
great man used to study. By taking a little meandering 
grass-grown walk, you come to another table ; but this is 
oblong, and a long seat stands beside it. It is half en- 
circled by a stone wall, and in the middle of the semi- 
circular space is a beautiful block of marble, on which are 
engraved some familiar lines from " Faust," composed on 
the spot. This is the place where the great poet con- 
cluded his " Faust." He did not begin it here, however, 
for it must not be forgotten that forty hard-working and 
not very happy years lay between the beginning and the 
end of the composition of that work. The tables in these 
secluded places have undergone changes, too, with every 
thing else about the poet's home. They are beginning to 
gather moss upon their surface, and are already leaning 
awry. As we saw them, they were covered by newly- 
fallen leaves, and the frost-nipped flowers in the half- 
tilled garden formed a fit accompaniment to the over- 
grown hedges and the desolate house. 

While we were examining the grounds, some one came 
running down the hill, through the thick shrubbery, and 
wished to know what was the matter. We told him our 
errand, and asked permission to be shown the house. He 
informed us thai it was not allowed under any circum- 
stances, but he fina K changed his mind, and showed us, 






GERMANY'S ATHENS. 40 1 

I believe, every room in the cottage. It was in much the 
same condition as when Goethe occupied it, and was as 
fully abandoned inside as were the yard and the garden 
surrounding it. There are in the house a great many 
articles of ordinary furniture which had belonged to the 
poet. There was his little folding iron bedstead in the 
corner, which seemed scarcely large enough for a school- 
boy, and was not a whit larger than Napoleon's camp 
bedstead in the museum at Moscow. On a nail hung the 
basket in which Goethe used to carry his lunch when go- 
ing on those charming excursions to Jena, and elsewhere, of 
which Mr. Lewes has told us in beautiful style and spirit. 

Later, on our return to the city, we made diligent 
search for the poet's house in the heart of the place. It 
was a long time before we found any one who could show 
us where it was. A peasant, for example, of whom we 
inquired, did not seem to know that such a man had ever 
existed. Just think of it ! This Weimar was the place 
in which the great Goethe had spent the chief part of 
his working life, had contributed more than any ten grand- 
dukes together to give it a national reputation, and had, 
before and after death, attracted thousands to those peace- 
ful, grave-like streets, and yet a couple of strangers found 
it difficult at first to learn, from casual passers-by in the 
street, where the wonderful Titan had lived ! But this is 
a common European experience. I once spent nearly an 
entire afternoon in searching for Swedenborg's house in 
Stockholm, people living in the same street not knowing 
even the name of their seer. 

Goethe's town home stands in a dull market-place, 



402 LIFE IN THE FA THERLAND. 

where we saw several wagon loads of hay — in charge of 
peasant drivers clad in very odd costumes — waiting for 
purchasers. But all efforts to see the interior of the 
house were unavailing, " for," said the steward, " the two 
sons of Herr Von Goethe are at home, and will never, on 
any account, allow any one to enter and inspect the 
house." This was only a confirmation of what some per- 
sons had positively stated ; indeed, in making a search in 
the first instance we had but little hope of seeing more 
than the exterior of the dwelling. Murray says that vis- 
itors may enter on Fridays, but even this was stoutly 
denied at the door. 

Schiller did not have as many of life's comforts as the 
serene, majestic Goethe. Before going to Weimar he had 
to work hard for his bread, and the world doled out its 
comforts with a niggardly hand. The grand duke could 
not make him rich, for he too was poor, and had to part 
with man)' an ancestral jewel to maintain the literary 
splendor of his court. 

Schiller's humble house is in town. It is a plain, small, 
quaint two-story building, with a diminutive garden or 
yard in the rear. Over the front doer are the simple 
winds, " 1 lier wohnte Schiller " — 1 [ere lived Schiller. The 
three historical rooms are up stairs — the parlor, the bed- 
chamber, and a small room now used for the sale of liter- 
ary mementos oi the place. One ^( the first thing 
strike the eye is ;i good portrait oi President Lincoln. 
And what more appropriate picture could adorn thehoii.se 
of the grand German minstrel of freedom ? Schiller and 
Lincoln! Let them grow together in human 1 



GERMANY'S ATHENS. 403 

Though an ocean and a century separated them, they 
both spoke the same sweet language of liberty, had the 
same sense of man's brotherhood, and entertained the 
same firm faith in the final triumph of the right. 

Schiller's bedroom is smaller than I ever slept in at 
college, and the couch on which he died is simply a little 
trundle-bed. Here are the wreaths woven and deposited 
at the poet's funeral. The walls are covered with a poor 
green wash, and a faded picture of Macbeth hangs beside 
a window. There is the same porcelain stove that Schil- 
ler used, and also the plain deal table on which he was 
accustomed to write. The sight of the drawer in this 
table called to mind Goethe's story to Eckermann. Goethe 
related that he once went to visit Schiller, and, finding him 
out, sat for awhile at his table waiting for him. All at 
once he became faint, and it was some time before he dis- 
covered that the odor from decayed apples in his friend's 
drawer had caused the trouble. Schiller's wife then told 
him that her husband always kept spoiled apples near him, 
for they were necessary to his enjoyment and successful 
composition. I recalled the story to the present proprie- 
tor of the premises, as we stood before the writing-table, 
but he absolutely denied that there was any truth in Schil- 
ler's fondness for apples of that character. 

A number of fragments of Schiller's manuscripts are to 

be seen, and a little tuft of his hair and Goethe's at different 

times of life. On a broad piece of paper is his first draught 

of the dramatis personce of " Wilhelm Tell." There are 

scattered here and there, in different parts of the room, a 

good many objects which Schiller had himself used, such 
18 



404 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

as his quaint, plain inkstand, a candlestick, his seal, little 
cups and saucers, and letters. The largest of the three 
rooms is covered with a carpet, embroidered by the Wei- 
mar ladies, and presented, as a token of love for the poet, 
to his home. A Schiller Society has the premises under 
its care, and in a bookcase one finds the rapidly multiply- 
ing works on the poet and his writings. It is a complete 
Schillerian bibliography. It seemed hardly possible that 
we were standing in a house where was idolized, and sa- 
credly preserved, each little memento of the man who, in 
early life, had stood in the middle of the old Frankfort 
bridge and looked despairingly down into the muddy, 
rapid Main, only restraining himself by violence from put- 
ting an immediate end to his stormy and desperate life. 

There is a little yard in the rear of the house. It is 
half filled with shrubbery, and the sun has little play upon 
it. At one corner, where the vines are densest, there is the 
chair in which Schiller used to sit and study when he grew 
tired of his room. In another is a fine, large bust of him. 
The only relief we saw to the miniature autumn scene was 
a single green stalk of Indian corn, which, in Northern 
Germany, is regarded tropical, and frequently occupies an 
honored place among the plants of the elegant home. 

There is a fine bronze statue of Herder in front o( the 
city church. The inscription upon the base is plain, but 
more touching on account of its simplicity: — 

JollN GOTT F R [ED II E K D E R, 
Born .u Morungen, August 25, 1744. 
I >ied .u Weimar, Man h [8, t8 

ERECTED 1. \ mm GERMANS Of I \ I K \ LAND. 



GERM AX ] ' 'S A THENS. 405 

The grand duke's big heart had room enough for Herder 
too, and he had a slab placed over his grave inscribed, 
" Licht, Liebe, Leben " — Light, Love, Life. The dust of 
the theologian, philosopher, poet, and historian lies be- 
neath the slab. Wieland, at his own request, was buried 
in Osmanstadt, in the same grave with his wife. His old 
home in Weimar is still preserved with scrupulous care. 
Schiller and Goethe lie in the grand-ducal mausoleum, in 
the city cemetery, which is very beautifully situated on a 
gentle hill-side, and abounds in tasteful monuments. It 
is well-cared for, and a great many of the graves are 
beautified with fresh wreaths and bouquets. The grand 
duke, keeping up until th'e end his affection for the two 
great poets, provided that after death they should be 
buried beside him — one at his right, and the other at his 
left. But royal etiquette has since banished them to a 
plebeian distance, though not without the thick walls of 
the mausoleum. Among other celebrated men interred 
in the' cemetery are Hummel, the composer, and John 
Falk, the children's friend, whose life has been touchingly 
portrayed by Stevenson in his " Praying and Working." 
In the cemetery of the city church is the tomb of Lucas 
Cranach. The mason who carved his epitaph, inscribed, 
Pictor celenimits, instead of celeberrimus — not so much of 
a mistake, after all. 



4"''< LIFE IX THE FATHERLAND. 



CHAPTER XII. 

T H R E E M E C C A S . 

WITTENBERG is not within the Thuringian Forest, 
but is a place generally visited at the same time 
with the latter because of its historical associations. 
Some time before one reaches the city its extensive grass- 
covered fortifications, still kept in excellent condition, are 
clearly seen. A pleasant walk skirts a grove, and leads 
past the " Luther Tree" to the chief city gate. This oak 
tree is very large, and is strong and thriving. It is care- 
fully inclosed, and protected by police regulations against 
all damage, — and all because it is the immediate successor 
of the very one under which Luther burned the Pope's 
Bull, in the presence of the students and others, on De- 
cember 10, 1520. After passing through the city 
you find yourself in a town where one street — and that 
paved with cobble-stones, and sadly in want of a street 
commissioner — almost monopolizes the trade. 

The house in which Luther lived is on the left, and is 
soon reached. It is part of the old building connected with 
the university. When I last walked through the streets I 
found that the Crown Prince and Princess of Prussia had 
just paid a visit to the city, to attend an industrial exhibi- 
tion. Luther's house was literally 1 with festoons 
and wreaths of oak and ivy, in acknowledgment o( the 
royal honor. All the halls and stairways were a ma 



THREE MECCAS. 407 

wreaths. The principal room in the house still contains 
some of the furniture used by Luther. The great por- 
celain stove, designed according to his own direction, is 
covered on all four sides by reliefs illustrating events in 
sacred history. There are several old books, and in some 
of them annotations in the neat and clear chirography of 
Luther himself. The windows are of little, round, thick 
panes, and these none the clearest. In one of the rooms 
is a plain pine^ chair, or, rather, a short bench, in which 
Luther and his wife used to sit together in the evening, 
and enjoy the iresh air and busy street scenes. Among 
other objects of interest are the table on which the Re- 
former wrote, a drinking-jug, his chair, Cranach's portrait 
of him, a cast of his face taken after death, and Peter the 
Great's chalk autograph over the door. 

Not far distant is Melanchthon's house. A teacher 
lives in it now, but, as he was not in, his servant showed 
us the premises. There is but little furniture in the large 
room on the second floor, where Melanchthon used to 
spend the most of his time. This room has, clearly, under- 
gone almost no change since the death of its great occu- 
pant. But its neglect and destitution, and the entire ab- 
sence of all effort to make it attractive, give it a peculiar 
charm. The garden is overgrown with shrubbery. On one 
side is a thick, time-worn stone table, now quite out of its 
horizontal, and almost obscured by overhanging trees. This 
was Melanchthon's table, on which he wrote whenever 
the weather permitted. On going further along the main 
street, the same old woman who had conducted me over 
the place fourteen years before, and who, with her hus- 



408 LIFE IX THE FATHERLAXD. 

band, has been taking strangers to Luther's house and 
the Castle Church these thirty years, pointed out the iden- 
tical house, with gable-ends fronting the public square, in 
which Hamlet used to live. Shakspeare has told us that 
he studied in Wittenberg, but the old woman's story of 
his exact residence was a little too much for my credulity, 
though this might not have been the case if I had nut 
been trudging along in a drenching rain, in the middle of 
a very muddy street. 

The Castle Church, where Luther nailed the ninety-five 
theses to the door, is at the further end of the town. It 
is very large, but is not attractive, if we except its impor- 
tant connection with the Reformation. In the floor are 
the graves of Luther and Melanchthon. There is no 
elaborate inscription over them, and their dust is covered 
by two simple, heavy bronze plates, which are protected 
by a wooden trap-door. During the celebrated triumphal 
visit of the Emperor Charles V. to this church, as he 
at these graves the cruel Alva advised him to take out 
the dust and burn it publicly. " No," replied Charles Y.. 
"we make war on the living, nut on the dead!" In the 
same edifice are the tombs of Frederic the Wise and John 
the Steadfast, Electors of Saxony, and Luther's stanch 
friends. Frederic's monument i-> by Peter Vischer. 

In visiting Erfurt we fell in with a party, all intent upon 
tin- same object — a visit to Luther's cell. After i 
rooms we hurried off in search of the cloister whei Re- 

former had hem a monk. Several persons whom we met 
in the streets could give no satisfactory answ nir in- 

quiries as to the locality. One would suppose that Luther 



THREE MECCA S. 409 

had never lived. " Don't know any thing about it," was 
the actual response we had from as many as four or five 
people. At last we seemed to be on the right track, and 
finally passed under the archway of what proved to be a 
large court, surrounded by a cloistered building. On 
being told where the place of admission was, we went to 
it, rang the bell, and soon heard hasty footsteps along the 
hall. The door was opened by a nun, clad in black, with 
the usual broad linen collar and black gown. We were as 
deferential as we knew how to be, in asking to see the 
cell where Luther had been a monk. The " sister " gave 
a very porcine grunt as the only answer, and then slammed 
the heavy door in our faces and bolted it, and left us no 
wiser than we were before. 

We were knocking at the wrong door, for it was the 
entrance to a Roman Catholic nunnery, where Luther's 
memory was not very tenderly treasured. It took us a good 
quarter of an hour to find the Protestant Martinsstift, or 
Orphan House, lying in another part of the city, where 
Luther's cell really is. We were here received in a friend- 
ly manner, and ample time given to inspect the stiff old 
portraits adorning the walls the entire length of the build- 
ing. The cell is very small, probably not larger than eight 
feet by ten. Several old missals, which Luther used, are 
still shown the visitor ; and there are a number of books 
containing elaborate notes in his own handwriting. The 
walls are adorned with passages derived, in part, from his 
works, and in part descriptive of his life. Our guide was 
not impatient, but allowed us all the time we wished, in 
spite of the twilight, to examine every little object of inter- 



4IO LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

est as leisurely as one could desire. Besides, she had the 
excellence, so rare in her craft, of not bewildering and dis- 
gusting you, in the midst of your reflections, by some 
monotonous set speech on the glories of the spot. It was 
enough for us to be told that we were where Luther found 
the light ; the rest belongs to history. 

The road from Erfurt to Eisenach is very beautiful. 
We kept to the fine old country roads, and though we 
were often inclined to throw aside our knapsacks and take 
the cars, we nevertheless adhered to the pedestrian part 
of our tour. We ascended one of the Drei Gleichen, — 
three great castellated ruins covering lofty eminences, — 
and could overlook a great part of the Thuringian Forest. 
We spent a night in beautiful, peaceful Gotha. On our wax- 
up the Wartburg, at Eisenach, we passed the new and 
stately mansion of the celebrated Low German poet and 
novelist, Fritz Reuter. In less than an hour afterward we 
were in the small, plain room where Luther worked with 
prodigious energy from May 4, 152 1, to March 6, 1522, on 
his translation of the Bible. The guides have bec<>me 
ashamed of inking over the place where he threw the ink- 
stand at the devil's head. Indeed, it would now consume a 
good sized bottle of ink to carry out the practice, for the 
spot has grown into an immense patch, covering a I; 
section of one of the walls. The relic-hunters have not 
been idleoi late years, for, shortly before our visit, the plas- 
ter had been pulled from a spot about a foot square ! The 
low bedstead has suffered some additional kniving, hut the 
Reformer's table is so heavily bound in iron that its pro- 
portions will probably suffer but little diminution in future. 



THR EE . 1 TEC 'CA S. 411 

On the table there is a good supply of photographic views 
and of pocket Testaments — Luther's translation ; and after 
making a selection from them, and viewing Cranach's pic- 
ture of the Reformer's parents, we left the memorable little 
room. Other interesting parts of the castle — if there is 
any thing interesting after seeing Luther's room — are the 
hall where the Minnesingers met in 1207 for a trial of 
their skill, the curious armor, and the tasteful chapel, of 
interest alike to Catholic and Protestant. To the latter 
it is interesting because Luther used to preach in it ; and 
to the former, because of its association with Saint Eliza- 
beth, the apostle to Thuringia. 

The Grand Duke of Eisenach has lately subjected 
the entire castle to a thorough renovation. The breaches 
that time had made in its storm-beaten walls had been 
widening for centuries, and now every room in the majes- 
tic pile, save only Luther's, has been so restored and beau- 
tified that any visitor who saw it a few years ago would 
hardly recognize any thing more than the usual out- 
line of the great structure, and the magnificent hill on 
which it stands. On leaving the castle our guide took 
us to an outer corner of a bastion, remarking that, as 
we were no doubt glad to meet a fellow- American at 
any time, he would introduce us to one. He thereupon 
pulled a little chain, when out walked a little black bear, 
wagging his tail and smelling about our feet in the most 
amiable manner possible. He had lately been presented to 
some one connected with the Wartburg, and made the jour- 
ney all the way from his home in the Rocky Mountains. 
18* 



412 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

MARBACH : SCHILLER'S BIRTHPLACE. 

r I ^HP^ quaint Suabian village of Marbach is the birth- 
■*- place of Schiller. It is far in the south, in liberty- 
loving Wiirtemburg. I left the cars at Stuttgart, where, 
indeed, one begins to see very decided reminders of the 
great poet. The powers in that capital once rejected and 
hunted him as a revolutionist and wild-pate, because of 
his triumphant "Robbers ;" but the present occupants of 
the great palace look out from their windows upon Thor- 
waldsen's statue of him in the square in front. The man 
whom Wiirtemberg would have been glad to hang three 
quarters of a century ago. is now the one she looks upon 
as her greatest son ; to whose button-hole, if he were 
living, she would tie all her ribbons of nobility, and for 
whose slender form and pale face she would rear palaces 
from her richest quarries and her choicest forests. 

I visited the court chapel in the old palace, the Stifts- 
kirche, the second-hand bookstores, the Royal Park, and 
some of the most picturesque of the oldest streets oi~ the 
Suabian city. At the railway station I had the oppor- 
tunity of seeing how a royal visitor, who, in this case, was 
the Queen of Holland, was received. There were some 
three or lour hundred towns-people gathered, through 
curiosity, in front of the depot, while as many as a half- 
dozen Special drivers ami lackeys ill livery were waiting 



MA RBA CH : SCHILL ER'S BIR THPLA CE. 4 1 3 

for the guest. All the court carriages were highly pol- 
ished, and were designated by the crown, with the nation- 
al escutcheon painted on each side. One carriage, how- 
ever, was drawn by white horses, and I soon saw that this 
was the one intended for the queen. At a given signal 
there was a general flutter, the carriages fell into line, 
and the white horses were made to feel the presence of 
the whip, with an air which seemed to say, " Now, know 
that royal blood is near, and that you are to be on your 
best behavior." 

The queen — who, with a lady at each side, now came 
quickly from the rear of the station to the front, seemed 
intent on communicating as much as possible to her at- 
tendants in a short time — graciously inclined her head to 
the uncovered bystanders, stepped quickly into the car- 
riage, and was driven off at a rapid pace. Her attendants 
took the other carriages, and soon there was no other 
person in her train to be seen except a sergeant, who, 
in his Dutch bewilderment, could hardly tell where to be- 
gin to get his royal mistress's baggage in order. The 
queen was pale, apparently about forty-five years of age, 
had light hair, a thin, but ruddy face, and high cheek- 
bones. She wore a black cloth dress and mantle, em- 
broidered sparingly with silk of various colors. There 
was not a cheer to welcome her to the Suabian Court — 
but these are not always given nowadays in the presence 
of royalty. I have never yet heard a dozen, though I 
have been present on several occasions when the people 
and royalty have come within greeting sight of each other. 
I was much less favorably impressed with her appearance 



4H LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

on this occasion than at a later time, when I had a much 
better opportunity to see her while visiting her House 
in the Wood — her country home in the grand park at the 
Hague. 

Proceeding to Ludwigsburg, one of Schiller's several 
Suabian homes, I found that, in order to reach Marbach 
the same evening, I had to take a post-coach. It proved 
to be one of the olden time. The driver, Gottfried, (God's 
peace,) seemed to be a general pet, but no amount of 
trinkgelds appeared to expedite his movements. I won- 
dered why he was not more industrious, why he did not 
make use of his big whip ; but was told that it was through 
no fault of his that he did not make his horses start. And 
I soon saw for myself that Gottfried was as innocent as 
the stars of what had seemed to be an endeavor to make 
us keep late hours, whether or not. He, poor fellow, 
could not move an inch without the orders of the officer 
in charge of the post-office, who, when he was re 
came tumbling out, and in as authoritative a manner as if 
Barbarossa himself had spoken, gave Gottfried the follow- 
ing orders, in the hearing of us all : " See that you depart 
and arrive in due time at your destination ! " 

Surely the Neckar never reflected the moonlight more 
beautifully than on that clear October evening. The 
road lay along the elevated bank of the river, ami much 
of the way under branches of trees. Like the Suabian 
roads in general, this, too, was fringed on both sides by 

fruit-trees ; but the wayfarer is not allowed t'> pluck the 
fruit from them. I know the ease .if a child whose father 

wa compelled to pay a gulden because a single apple 



MA REACH: SCHILLER 'S BLR TH PLACE. 4 1 5 

was plucked on the roadside, near Heidelberg', by the 
little offender. Along the road that Gottfried was taking 
us there had often passed armies, from the Roman times 
almost down to our own ; but especially in the age of the 
Hohenstaufens — the glory of Suabia, and one of the great- 
est royal race ever given to Germany's imperial throne. 

To me, however, it was of as much interest because 
of its connection with Schiller's name as for an\ other 
reason. Many a time, when a boy, he had wandered along 
this pleasing section of the Neckar, and as he lingered bv 
the water's edge and gathered flowers, and played his un- 
gainly harp beneath the overhanging trees, he dreamed of 
his future, wondering what sort of fate was going to be 
meted out to him. Many a time, after the family had re- 
moved to Ludwigsburg, he went along the road with his 
mother to visit his aged grandparents in Marbach. Chris- 
tophine, Schiller's sister, has prepared for us a sweet little 
record of one of these juvenile journeys, though this one 
was not along the Neckar, but by the mountain road. 
" Once," says she, " when we children were accompanying 
our mother to our dear grandparents, we took the road 
from Ludwigsburg to Marbach over the mountain. It 
was a beautiful Easter Monday, and in the way our mother 
related to us the history of the two disciples whom Jesus 
walked with on the way to Emmaus. Her narrative be- 
came more earnest the further we went, and, as we came 
to the top of the mountain, we were all so affected that we 
kneeled clown there and prayed. This mountain was our 
Tabor." 

I reached Marbach about nine o'clock at night, and was 



416 LIFE IX THE FATHERLAND. 

directed to my lodgings by several kind villagers, to whom 
the arrival of the stage was the principal event of the day, 
and who crowded around every traveler, as if anxious to 
bid him welcome. As by the aid of lanterns, borne by 
these friendly hands, I picked my way along the filthy 
streets of the town, then through the old gateway of the 
grim, gray tower, then past an old church ruin, how could 
I forget the history which lies back of all this unassuming, 
prostrate, but contented present ? 

Tt is the old story of war and pestilence. As long ago 
as the Roman supremacy in German}-, Marbach was a 
thriving town. Ruins, still in existence, prove it to have 
been an important Roman colony, which served as a meet- 
ing-point for several important country roads. In the 
year 978 it appears in history as a part of the Rhenish 
Franconian diocese of Speyer, and in the possession of 
the bishop resident there. After the end of the thir- 
teenth century it was the property of the Count of Wiir- 
temberg. It was plundered by the Spanish troop 
Charles V. in the Smalkaldian War, and the French allies 
of the Germans, under Turenne and Bernard of Weimar, 
were quartered there in the Thirty Years' War, from 1 
to 1646. Notwithstanding all the drawbacks, however, the 
little city managed to live. In the fifteenth century it had 
grown so much, on one side, that the Alexander Church was 
built to satisfy the increased religious wants of the com- 
munity. But the third war of conquest, under Louis XIV., 
brought destruction to the town, and in July, [693, the 
inhabitants oi Marbach were driven out by the French, 
the city was set on fire, and in a few hours it was a mass 



MA REACH : SCHILLER 'S BIR THPLA CE. 4 1 7 

of ruins. It had taken seven hundred years for the little 
town to grow to the height of its prosperity, and now it 
fell in as many hours. In the eighteenth century it began 
to be rebuilt ; but it had many difficulties to contend with, 
and was compelled, amid the convulsions of the former 
half of that century, to quarter the troops of the French, 
Russian, and Austrian armies. 

The connection of Marbach with the Schiller family 
dates from the 14th of March, 1749, when a young man, 
in military costume, rode along the Neckar to this little 
town. He came directly from the Netherlands, the win- 
ter quarters of his regiment, and had taken this oppor- 
tunity to pay a visit to his native country. His birthplace 
was Bittenfeld, near Waiblingen. His father had been 
dead sixteen years, his mother had wandered to the vil- 
lage of Marbach, and his brothers and sisters had become 
scattered to Ludwigsburg, Bittenfeld, Neckerems, and 
Marbach. The soldier came to Marbach because it was 
now the home of the sister, whom he was especially anx- 
ious to see. The young officer went to the hotel of the 
place, the " Golden Lion," which belonged to George 
Frederic Bodweis, who was a baker, and who passed for 
a man in good circumstances. This man had a daugh- 
ter who was seventeen years of age, Elizabeth Dorothea, 
and in five months from the time when the officer first put 
foot on the door-step of the Golden Lion, he and the pro- 
prietor's daughter were man and wife. They became the 
father and mother of the poet Schiller, and Marbach was 
henceforth their permanent home. 

Early the next morning after my arrival in Marbach I 



41 3 LIFE IX THE FATHERLAXD. 

went in search of the house where Schiller was born. It 
is small, one story and a half high, and, like the most of 
the houses in the town, and throughout Suabia, is so 
built as to render all the timbers constituting its frame- 
work visible. There is no door-yard whatever. You 
step directly into the house from the unswept street. 
The house bears the following inscription : " The birth- 
place of Schiller, who was born November the I ith, 1759, 
and died May the 9th, 1805." 

In the middle of the plate containing the inscription 
there is a medallion bust of the poet. 

Over the door there is a metallic plate, showing that 
the house is insured in the Phoenix German Insurance 
Society. An old-fashioned bell-knob hangs at the door. 
A young man bade me enter. The room in which Schil- 
ler was born is at the left, and is not more than eight 
feet wide and twelve feet long. There, in one corner, is 
his mother's old spinning-wheel ; some of its smoothness, 
no doubt, dates back to the boyhood of little Fritz. The 
wheel is worm-eaten, but the principal parts are still there, 
and I had no difficulty in making it revolve as much as I 
pleased. The chief articles of furniture in the room are a 
secretary, in perfect preservation, and a stove of the olden 
time. There is a letter, framed, which Schiller's mother 
wrote to a friend about a servant she was trying to 
along with. Every line betrayed the fact that- good house- 
wives had trouble with their domestics over a century 
and in what we regard the paradise of good servants, the 
Fatherland. The pictures of the poet's father and mother 
are well preserved. 



MARBACH : ^CHILLER'S BIRTHPLACE. 419 

The stairway is very narrow, dark, and angular. The 
front upper room, the largest in the house, is a museum 
of relics of the poet and tributes to his memory. In a 
glass case there is an old leathern hat, ten times more ro- 
mantic than the old broken felt hat of Napoleon, at the 
Louvre, which he wore at St. Helena. One of the pict- 
ures is a pencil sketch of Schiller when a young man, 
clad in peasant costume, and sitting sidewise on a sleepy 
old donkey, and smoking a long pipe. The picture was 
sketched by a friend, and taken from life, as Schiller ap- 
peared one day at Wildbad. There is in another frame 
something that looks like a little cheap bow-knot of various 
colors. This, on close inspection, proves to be hair, and 
the knot is really the hair of Schiller and his family, his 
own being the red threads. In the table are magnificent 
copies of illustrations to Schiller's works, presented by 
authors and publishers. The list of strangers shows 
many arrivals every day. One large book contains selec- 
tions from the principal printed testimonials to the poet's 
greatness, on the occasion, in Marbach, of the hundredth 
anniversary of his birth. Among them are many of En- 
glish authorship, Carlyle's figuring prominently. There 
is a large book-case containing copies of Schiller's works, 
which are for sale to visitors. There are also pictures of 
the house ; some large portraits ; crayons of various 
rooms ; and famous illustrations to scenes in his works. 
There is in one corner an exact copy of Dannecker's 
bust of the poet, the best in existence. It is crowned 
with a laurel wreath. 

Every year, on the 1 ith of November, the old wreath is 



420 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

taken away and replaced by a new one. As it was in 
October when I happened to visit the house, and the old 
wreath was soon to give way to a new one, the man in 
charge gave me a number of the laurel leaves, which I 
found much more fragrant than the faded roses. To me one 
of the most interesting objects was a copy of the first play- 
bill announcing in Mannheim the performance of Schil- 
ler's "Robbers." In it there is not only the enumeration 
of the dramatis personal, but also an account, by the poet 
himself, of the principal points of the play. The public 
are invited to come early, as the play is long, and cannot 
be concluded until quite late in the evening. I con- 
cluded my visit by purchasing some little mementos of 
the place. 

The greatest season of rejoicing Marbach has ever 
had was on the 9th, 10th, and nth of November, 1 
at the time of the centennial celebration of Schiller's 
birth, already referred to. Strangers from all quarters 
streamed into the town. Presents from all parts of Eu- 
rope came day after rlay. The far-off city of Moscow, for 
instance, testified to its love of Schiller by sending an 
immense bell, which now hangs in the desolate Alexander 
Church. On one side of it there is a medallion head of 
Schiller, in relief. Over it is the wool "Concordia;" be- 
neath it the words, "Gather the loving congregation for 
worship, for hearty union." Around the bell there : 
garland of oak and laurel. On the side opposite the bust 
nl Schiller you read in an open book the words. ■■ I call 
,1 " living, and I lament the dea I ; " and under \\ 

w °rds, further, " bo the home of Schiller from his b> 



MA REACH: SCHILLER'S BIRTHPLACE. 421 

in Moscow, November 10th, 1859." The tribute, with 
its inscription, will naturally call to the reader's mind 
Schiller's celebrated " Song of the Bell," which suggested 
the gift. 

Schiller's house belongs to the town of Marbach, and 
the association having charge of it are endeavoring to 
beautify it, and place it on a good financial foundation. 
The most elevated point in the neighborhood of Marbach 
is called the Schiller Height. It affords a fine view of the 
country for miles around, and the Schiller Association, 
when it can collect funds enough, proposes to erect there 
a suitable monument to the memory of little Marbach's 
greatest son. 



422 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

DOWN THE NECKAR IN VINTAGE-TIME. 

T N order to go down the Neckar in vintage-time, I left 
-*- Marbach in the early morning. The picture presented 
at the quaint old post-house was one of the olden time — 
just such as might have been seen about a hundred and 
fifteen years before, when, in all likelihood, that very post- 
house, and the inn near by, served the same purpose as 
on the crisp October morning of 1869, when I threw my 
knapsack on top of the old coach that was to draw me 
down through the grape region of Wiirtemberg. How 
did I know but that Schiller's mother, unquestionably a 
belle of the place, had often looked through the identical 
panes of glass, in the second story of the inn, through 
which a couple of boys were now peeping, with laughing 
eyes, at the stranger below, half hidden in an old Ameri- 
can shawl ? Our coach was as much one of the olden 
time as you could well find in the imperial collection oi 
carriages in St. Petersburg, or in the immense can 
house in Windsor Castle. As for the horses and the gen- 
eral outfit of the post-coach, they would have been as much 
at home in the fifteenth century as in the present. This 
contact with the remote past, which one experiences every- 
where in S labia, always gave me a singular pleasure, and 
has taken a place among my most delightful recollections. 
The villagers collected around us as we took our pi.. 



DOWN THE NECKAR IN VINTAGE-TIME. 423 

in the stage, and the postmaster came out at last and de- 
livered elaborate orders to the driver. A band of musi- 
cians, that had been doing hornpipe service at a village 
wedding in the small hours of the night before, took 
possession of a supplementary coach, and we were all soon 
clattering away over the rough cobble-stones of honest, 
simple, memorable Marbach. As we passed the house 
where Schiller was born, the man having charge of it put 
his head out of a side window — how often had boy Schiller 
done the same thing ! — to watch the departing stage, and, 
recoo-nizins: me as one of his visitors and a customer of 

o o 

his little memorials, bowed until we turned a corner. We 
saw him and his shrine no more. 

It was only after leaving Marbach that I could form an 
idea of its former importance, and fully realize its actual 
history. The place had once been surrounded by im- 
mense walls, and these, now extending far beyond the 
present dimensions, are more than half-covered with ivy 
and grape vines. It is the old warrior grown too thin and 
lean for the neat armor of his strong manhood. You see 
broad gashes here and there in the massive fortifications, 
as if some quavers from a South American earthquake 
had reached them ; and, by the aid of a little fancy, you 
can detect the scars from balls hurled during the war 
of the Austrian succession. The walls are still high, but 
have long ago forgotten their perpendicular, and the vines 
are doing their best, in their slow but efficacious way, to 
complete the task of their demolition. 

The road lay through continuous vineyards all the way 
to Heilbronn. Not long after leaving Marbach we left 



4?4 LIFE IN THE FAT HER LA XI). 

also the Neckar, and when I had sight of it again, it was 
as if grasping the hand of a friend. I had the comfort, on 
the following clay, to see it again at Heilbronn, when it was 
no longer the little babbling brook, but the vigorous young 
river, boasting broader hillsides for its vineyards, prouder 
knolls for grander castles, dashing furiously against the 
Heilbronn piers, and even claiming a place with the great 
family of navigable streams. 

The vineyards through which we passed had no in- 
closure whatever, and yet the rich clusters hanging by the 
road side were fully ripe — a testimonial to the proverbial 
honesty of the Suabian peasants ; or shall I call it a respect 
for law? The villagers along the road were alive with 
vintage glee. The coopers were actually at work in the 
street, getting ready wooden vessels of all sizes for the 
new wine. In some of the vineyards there were throngs 
of gleaners, and people were passing to and from these 
with tubs of grapes, which were deposited in receptacles 
by the road side. The very air was filled with the per- 
fume of the vintage, and man and beast seemed to rejoice 
together that now the reaping-time had come, after a 
•year of tender and ceaseless nurture of the vines. 

At Beilstein I ascended a high hill to an old castle, 
celebrated for its still unscathed tower and the strong walls 
inclosing it. It bears the name of " Der Lange Hans"— 
Long Jack — and is so prominently situated that you can 
see from its top a vast landscape ^\ quiet but exquisite 
beauty. The upward road lay through vineyards. The 

depression surrounding the massive outer wall marks the 

exact outline of the ancient moat, and the bridge crossing it 



DOWN THE NECK A R IN VINTAGE -TIME. 425 

and leading into the castle is so out of its original position, 
and such a prey to wild-flowers, vines, and weeds, as to 
make it a perfect gem for the landscapist's pencil. A part 
of the structure within the inclosure betrays Roman work- 
manship. The whole ruin is a rare treasure. 

On our return to the village we stopped to take a look 
at the now dilapidated church of the knights of Beilstein, 
the former lords of the whole district. The old stone 
pulpit is still standing, and the tombstones of the Beil- 
steins, notwithstanding the numerous fractures and losses, 
are still distinguishable, but only by the aid of the stone 
escutcheons of the family. The coat of arms was three bat- 
tle-axes, in the form of a triangle. Hence the name of the 
Beilstein knights — Beil meaning ax, and stein, stone. 

At Heilbronn I found the Suabian vintage in its grand 
climax. It was no more the quiet thing I had been view- 
ing for twenty miles, but the real hilarious and crowning 
glory of the year. The streets and roads were thronged 
with people, going to and from the vineyards. All classes, 
both sexes, and horse, donkey, and dog, were willing 
followers in the train of Bacchus. Those who were not 
taking any part as laborers in the vineyard came as guests 
or overseers. I found it, or so it seemed, the grand time 
for renewing acquaintances and settling differences. The 
very road sides were thronged with people merely looking 
at the gleaners. Horses and donkeys drew small carts, 
and carried the must, or impressed grapes, to the different 
places of ownership. Peasant women bore on their shoul- 
ders long wooden tubs, filled with grapes, to the press, or 
tj the donkey-wagon at the road-side. Press, did I say? 



426 LIFE IN THE FA THERLAXD. 

Yes, in some cases, but not in all. The press was a little 
machine, something like a fan, and turned by a crank. 
But this was not the real Suabian way of getting at the 
juice of the grape. The principal press was the human feet > 
with jack boots on. The grape-treaders were, in every case 
I saw, young men, who were tramping in terrible earnest, 
as if determined to take vengeance on the grapes fur all 
the labor they had caused. 

" What sort of boots are those you have on ? " I asked 
one of the treaders of the grapes when on my way to a 
tower called the Wartburg. 

" O, they are old," replied the fellow, good-humoredly. 

" I suppose you cleaned them well before you got into 
this tub of grapes ? " 

" Of course." 

" But your feet cannot be comfortable, as the grape- 
juice is certainly quite cold." 

"They are cold enough, and wet too." 

If my temperance principles had not been pretty strong 
already, this would have had some effect in strengthening 
them. What would the American devotee to imported 
wines think, as he empties his overflowing decanters, if he 
could for a moment see these unkempt rustic peasants 
treading out grapes with their dirty feet ? 

Heilbronn, or Health Fountain, takes its name from a 
spring near St. Kalian's Church, ^( alleged healing prop- 
erty, and flowing out of seven pipes. This fountain is the 
source of a host of old legends ; but only the most impor- 
tant one, because connected with the introduction of Chris- 
tianity into that region, I will here give. 



DOWN THE NECKAR IN VINTAGE-TIME. 427 

Far back in the early period of the Christian era, when 
a vast wilderness overspread nearly all Germany, the 
apostles of peace entered this dense forest from a far-off 
country, in order to extend the doctrines of Christianity. 
Among the number was the pious Kilian, whose holy 
calling led him to the inhospitable regions of the Main 
and the Neckar. Here, where Heilbronn now stands, but 
where no friendly dwellings were then found, he gradually 
collected his followers beside the fresh fountain. He 
preached with great zeal the word of life, and extended 
to his hearers the boon of Christian baptism. It was not 
long before he fell, a martyr to his faith, at the hands of 
the barbarians ; and, although one of his disciples con- 
tinued the good work, the pure light was nevertheless 
overcome by the prevailing darkness, and the consecrated 
fountain was visited less and less by eager seekers of the 
truth. Many years passed by, and the Lord sent one of 
his greatest servants, Charlemagne, the strong pillar of 
Christianity in his times, to this neighborhood. One day 
the mighty ruler was hunting deer and wild boar in the 
primeval Scheuerberg Forest. In the middle of the day 
he and his attendants became very thirsty, and gathered 
about the beautiful little fountain, or brook, which they 
fortunately discovered. This was the fountain of the de- 
voted Kilian, and the crystal water slaked the thirst of the 
weary hunters. By and by the hunting-horns sounded 
again for the chase, and the emperor was about to start, 
when a preacher, whose look betrayed deep sorrow, made 
his appearance from amid a dark thicket. He was at first 

overcome by the grand appearance of the hunters ; yet the 
19 



4^8 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

emperor encouraged him to speak, and tell the secret of 
his grief. The old man then related the story of the pious 
Kilian, and added these words : " Great ruler, only a few 
come here now to receive holy baptism, for the men of 
this wild country have grown worse in time, and are so 
set against the pure doctrine of Christianity, that I and 
my spiritual brethren can gain only a few followers." 

Charlemagne replied : " Be of good courage ! I give you 
my imperial word that, as I and my followers have found 
refreshment at this fountain, so shall it become a fountain 
of heavenly blessing again to others." Soon after this the 
emperor sent a great number of ministers to this region, 
and had a church built over the fountain. Then, in proc- 
ess of time, the vast forests were felled, and beautiful 
fields and a peaceful population took their place. Charle- 
magne called the fountain the "Healing Fountain," and 
in a little while he had one oi his imperial residences 
built very near it. The example of the ruler worked | 
erfully on the inhabitants of the country. The doctrines 
of the Gospel again reached many hearts, and around the 
palace and church there gathered a multitude of believers. 

The historical foundation for this touching legend was 
found in a German manuscript, which was taken to Rome 
dining the Thirty Years' War; then found its way to 
Paris in [796, and in [816 was restored to Germain', and 
placed in the ducal library of Heidelberg. 

The old parts of the city of Heilbronn present all the 
interesting features that characterize the Suabian archi- 
tecture. The projecting gable fronts, the quaint bay- 
windows, the stone carvings, the winding stairs, And the 



DOWN THE NECKAR IN VINTAGE-TIME. 429 

enormous and almost unwieldy old pumps, tell of a very 
old past. The present St. Kilian's Church is a renais- 
sance treasure from the thirteenth century, though the 
foundation was laid in 1037. The great bell, cast by 
Bernhard Bachmann, the father of the famous theologian 
who won Heilbronn over to Protestantism, is tolled every 
day at noon. 

The most interesting object in Heilbronn, to an anti- 
quarian, is Goetz's Tower, so called because it is the 
alleged scene of the imprisonment of Goetz von Berlich- 
ingen. This Goetz of the Iron Hand, an odd fellow withal, 
was one of the best knights of his time, and, with Ulrich 
von Hutten and Franz von Sickingen, was the last repre- 
sentative of the real knighthood of the Middle Ages. His 
whole spirit was full of honorable strife ; and no sooner 
did war break out anywhere in Germany, than he offered 
his broadsword to one or another of the contending par- 
ties, and was always to be relied upon at the risk of life 
and every human interest. In 1522, while aiding Ulrich 
of Wiirtemberg to crush the Suabian Confederation, he 
was betrayed, captured, and imprisoned in Heilbronn. 
He was also a participant in the " Peasants' War," and 
suffered imprisonment in consequence. He left behind 
one of the most entertaining autobiographies of the period, 
as it contains a faithful and minute picture of the social 
and moral state of his times. Goethe made much use of 
it in his maiden drama, "Goetz von Berlichingen ;" but so 
far deviated from it as to make Goetz die in the tall red 
tower in Heilbronn, by the Neckar bank ; while the Knight 
of the Iron Hand really spent only one night in it, and 



430 LIFE IN THE FA THERLAND. 

survived that night thirty-seven years, dying in peace and 
freedom in his own castle of Hornberg, lower down the 
Neckar, when over eighty years of age. He lost his right- 
hand in one of the battles, but succeeded in having an iron 
one so skillfully made that he was able to use the sword 
with it, and to box the ears of any knight of less sincerity 
and valor than himself who ventured into his presence. 

From the top of the tower I enjoyed a charming view 
of Heilbronn and the surrounding country. The premises 
are poorly kept, and I felt like employing a force of scrub- 
bers and sweepers to put them in presentable condition. 
There is one little room containing the rickety chair in 
which Goetz is said to have sat when a prisoner. On the 
stair-way there is a full coat-of-mail, standing as a knight 
prepared for war, representing him of the Iron Hand. 

The last sounds I heard that night were those of labor- 
ers returning from distant vineyards, or some place of 
amusement ; and early in the morning I was awakened by 
the not unwelcome salutations of the same joyous notes 
of young men and women going out to glean. 

The next day I went down the river as tar as Heidel- 
berg. The whole journey was one of enchanting interest. 
Old castles fringe the river banks, and in some places there 
are immense beech-forests. These latter form the dark 
green meeting-place of the Odenwald ami the Scharzwald. 
The most picturesque eastles are Mittelberg, Xwingen! 
Hornberg, and Ehrenberg, eaeli redolent oi tales o\ love 
and hate, troubled and eventful life, and hasty death. 
Who shall tell the history of those gray stones? The 
kindly ivy is ever laboring to prevent your fancy from 



DOWN THE NECK A R IX VINTAGE -TIME. 43 I 

delving into the hoary and bloody past, as much as to say, 
" Judge the past as I do, and cover the misdeeds of your 
fellows as charitably as I cover these rough gray stones." 

The chief town is Wimpfen, one-half of which lies in 
the valley and the other on the hill. Wimpfen on the hill 
stands on the site of the Roman Cornelia, named after the 
wife of Julius Caesar. Attila, at the head of his unspar- 
ing Huns, sacked and destroyed the castle. The whole 
Neckar region felt the full blast of the Thirty Years' War, 
and near Wimpfen the imperial army, under Tilly, defeated 
the Margrave George Frederick, of Baden, in 1622. 

Near the village of Bottingen is a chapel of unknown age, 
celebrated for the following: legend: — 

When all this region was still pagan, a bold and strong 
young man became betrothed to a beautiful girl. They 
loved each other devotedly ; but she was a Christian and 
he still a heathen. He adhered tenaciously to his idols ; 
and when the girl strove in vain to direct him to the pure 
Gospel, her sorrow at his course drove her from her peace- 
ful home into the thick forest, where she secluded herself 
in a rocky chasm, and prayed day and night for the salva- 
tion of her lover. Even the wild animals took compassion 
on the sorrowing one, and daily carried nourishment to 
her. After some years, she was released from the bonds 
of her sorrowful earthly life, and the angel of death bore 
her spirit to the realms of the blessed. Often, after she had 
gone, did her lover wander through the forest in search of 
her, but all in vain. One day, as he was hunting, a deer 
sprang out before him, and remained a moment standing 
in his presence, and looking at him with a supernatural 



432 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

sadness. The animal seemed to beckon him to follow, 
and the man followed it to a rocky cell, which he immedi- 
ately knew had been that of his loved one, for there was 
an inscription at its entrance, made by the girl herself; 
besides, the occupants of the valley confirmed his belief. 
He threw himself down beside the cell, and wept bitter 
tears of sorrow. Just then the image of the departed one 
came, as an angel from heaven, into his presence. The 
soft, sweet spirit of Christianity settled upon him. He 
resolved to be a Christian ; and immediately afterward 
went to the city of Worms, where he was baptized by the 
bishop. Having returned to his native place he built a 
cottage near the former secluded home of his departed 
loved one, and lived a hermit, in the retirement of his holy 
thoughts. He taught the doctrines of Christianity to all 
who surrounded him, refreshed the weary traveler with 
food and drink, and showed him the right way through the 
forest. The fame of his good deeds soon spread far and 
wide, and pilgrims came from distant places to his lonely 
cell, and sought from him comfort and strength for the 
sorrows of their life. Finally, after man}- long years had 
passed In', and the pious hermit had reached a hoary old 
age, he one night heard a rap at the door, while a fearful 
storm was raging without. He immediately arose and 
opened his door, and stood face to face with a beautiful 
form and sweet visage. This wanderer was clad in snow- 
white garments, ami in his eyes there glowed a heavenly 
peace. The hermit Immediately kindled a fire for him to 
warm himself by, and placedfood before him ; then kneel- 
ing, he offered his evening prayer with trembling voice. 






DOWN THE NECKAR IN VINTAGE- TIME. 433 

Arising from his knees, and looking at his guest, he found 
that the head of the stranger was surrounded with a halo 
of unearthly splendor. It was the angel of death, who 
said to him : " God has heard your prayer ; go, now, to 
your rest, and inherit eternal joy!" Then the stranger 
kissed the old hermit softly on the forehead, and he sank 
back — his soul was in the better world. The next morn- 
ing the old man was found as if in sweet sleep, and he was 
buried amid the lamentations of the multitude. The vis- 
itor in the white robe was the archangel Michael. A church 
was built by the people, and dedicated to St. Michael. 

Such is the explanation given for the name of the 
St. Michael's Church in Bottingen, and the height on which 
it stands is called Michaelsberg, or St. Michael's Mountain. 

At Neckarsteinach I found myself on familiar ground 
again. Fourteen years before, I had wandered up there, 
when a student at Heidelberg, in company with some other 
young Americans, and had spent the night in the neigh- 
borhood near the old castle. The next day we threaded 
the dense forest and visited the four old castles, now in 
ruins, which belonged to the family that went by the 
name of the " Landeschaden," or Land's Bane. From the 
highest one of them we enjoyed a magnificent view of 
the Neckar Valley for many miles. After resting under 
some trees of immense size and great age, and getting a 
humble repast of black bread and poor butter, we took raft 
for Heidelberg in the afternoon. Our sail, or rather float, 
was exciting, and the only injury we suffered was to get 
wet feet, and, before reaching port, an appetite that our 
friendly peasant raftsman had no means to satiate. 



434 LIFE IN THE FA THERLAND. 



CHAPTER XV. 

CASTLE WEIBERTREUE. WOMAN'S FIDELITY. 

/^V\E of my most interesting excursions was to Weins- 
^-^ berg, in Wiirtemberg. It lies at the base of the 
Castle of Weibertreue, or Woman's Fidelity. The i 
on entering a tunnel, slackened pace very perceptibly. I 
saw that the tunnel was lighted in some places, and that 
its arching was supported by an immense number of 
beams and pillars. On asking why this was, I was told, 
in the most complacent manner, that the tunnel had been 
looked upon for some time with great suspicion, and that 
a caving-in would not be a surprise at any time. 

On emerging from it into daylight again, we entered 
upon a valley of rare beauty. The town of Weinsberg 
was at our left, and rising above it in queenly glory w 
magnificent vine-clad hill, which is crowned with the still 
wall-girt ruins of the Weibertreue Castle. We were re- 
ceived at the station by a good Suabian of the town, who 
was expecting us. We threaded street after street of the 
curious place, and finally reached his home in a quaint old 
dwelling. Soon a lunch was spread tor us, and a-- w 
and regaled ourselves, our host entertained us with the 
story of the historical town and of its still more historical 
eastle. 1 have since found his narrative substantially 
confirmed by the most reliable authorities on Suabian 
histoi \ . 



CASTLE WEIBERTREUE. 435 

The history of the castle is really that of the town itself, 
for in the former lived the ruler (or his representative) of 
the latter, and his fate, of course, decided that of the men, 
women, and children in the humble dwellings below his 
castle. The town was originally a Roman colony, and 
there is evidence, though doubted by some, that it dates 
from the Roman Emperor Probus, A. D. 282. It is said 
that after the Allemanni, whose land had been incorpo- 
rated with that of the Franks, were conquered by the 
French king Chlodwig, near the end of the fifth century — 
the year 496 — much land in private hands was declared 
imperial property, and was given away by the Frank kings 
to Frankish or Allemannish grandees. From this time 
forth the Christian religion made great headway, and the 
more progress it made the more did the inhabitants ac- 
quire security of home. The castle on the Weinsberg was 
built either during the Frankish occupancy, from 536 to 
748, or soon afterward, under the dominion of the Carlo- 
vingians, from 748 to 917. It must have been in the pos- 
session of a baronial family, judging from the Book of 
Privileges of the city of Weinsberg of the year 1468. Ac- 
cording to other sources, the city of Weinsberg is said to 
have become a part of the see of the Bishop of Wiirtz- 
burg, and was the head of the chapter in the ninth 
century. 

From the year 945 the Knights of Weinsberg took an 
important part in the German and Swedish wars, and in 
the great continental tournaments. They were prominent 
figures for several centuries. On the fields around Weins- 
berg, now clad With vineyards, occurred that great conflict 
19* 



A"fi LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

between Count Guelph of Altorf — the guardian of Henry 
the Lion of Brunswick — and Conrad III., of Hohenstau- 
fen. The prize at stake was the possession of the estate 
of Weinsbcrg, and the Hohenstaufen was successful. The 
contest was bitter, hand-to-hand, and hung long in ths 
balance. All at once the shouts burst forth from the con- 
tending forces, "Strike for the Guelphs!" "Strike for 
the Ghibellines !" — two war-cries which resounded through 
all Italy and Germany, and were heard for full four hundred 
years, until the two great parties, self-exhausted, disap- 
peared before a current of greater interest. The whole 
of Europe was drawn into the vortex, and divided into 
friends and foes, the question of partisanship with one or 
the other often changing the fate of nations. Rienzi, of 
Rome, around whose strange life Bulwer weaves one of his 
best romances, was a stout warrior of the Guelphs, and did 
much to revive their prestige. Every-where the Guelphs 
represented public liberty, while the Ghibellines were the 
exponents of personal power. In German} - the Guelphs 
were the advocates of the rights of the minor princes ami 
knights against the despotism of the emperors, who were 
upheld by the Ghibellines. George IV., the late King of 
Hanover, whose kingdom was absorbed by Prussia in the 
war of 1866, is a Guelph, and boasts proudly of his ; 
gree. Queen Victoria, of England, through her con 
lion with the House of Brunswick, traces her ancestry 
!'! k to Queen Kunegunde, a Guelphic prince 

After a heart}- lunch at our Suabian host's ard, we 
started lor the ruined castle overlooking the town ^i 
Weinsberg and the broad and charming vale. On our 



CASTLE WEIBERTREUE. 437 

way we came to a beautiful house with back-lying grounds, 
and, across the street from it, a monumental bust of its 
former proprietor, Andreas Justinus Kerner, the cele- 
brated Suabian poet and prose writer. To him, more 
than any one else, the castle on the hill, at whose foot he 
lived and wrote, owes the great labor that has of late 
years been taken to beautify the grounds, and endear it 
and its story to all Germans. Kerner wrote several ex- 
cellent poetical works, was a friend and fellow-laborer with 
Uhland, and, by his earnest songs and hymns, touched 
many a chord in the German heart. His taste and edu- 
cation as a physician led him to studv closely the human 
organism, while his strongly poetical temperament induced 
him to give a fanciful interpretation to many of its dis- 
tinctive features. He was a firm believer in demonology 
in our days, as is plainly proved by his " History of two 
Somnambulists," :< History of the Possession of Devils 
in Modern Times," and especially his masterpiece, " The 
Prophetess of Prevorst." I can find in no sketch of his 
life a confirmation of the account given by his fellow- 
townsman, our host and friend in Weinsberg, that he 
professed to have communion with spirits, a la Stveden- 
borg, and that the picturesque old tower in the rear of his 
house was the scene of his preternatural conferences. 

By a narrow way, with a Norman hedge on either side, 
we ascended the hill on which the Weibertreue Castle 
stands. Passing through the portal we saw another way 
at our right, leading downward. This was the original 
road to the castle ; and, as we stood beside it and looked 
down the vista into the town below, we listened to the 



43 <s LIFE IX THE FATHERLAND. 

story of the castle for the first time, and how it came to 
be called Weibertreue. 

I have already said that Conrad III. defeated Count 
Guelph, of Altorf, in the plain below. The disaster 
brought with it some hard conditions, one of which was 
that all the men of Wcinsberg should be put to death, but 
that the women might march on unmolested ; and, to make 
the imperial grace more splendid, they were promised that 
they could take with them whatever was nearest their 
hearts. But what was nearest the hearts of the daughters 
of Wcinsberg ? We shall see. A messenger hastened to 
Conrad with some terrible news. No new enemy was 
marching with flying banners from the bold hill shutting 
in the valley. It was nothing but a woman's trick. All 
the women of Wcinsberg were standing at the castle gate, 
bearing upon their shoulders their husbands and lovers — 
all the men of the town, to the number of eleven hundrc 
Duke Frederic protested against this female ruse, that 
such a thing was an abuse of imperial grace, and that the 
thing was not to be thought of. But it was not Duke 
Frederic's part to speak the decisive word. Conrad, 
worthiest of the Hohenstaufens, replied : " Non decet ver- 
bum regium immutari" — The royal word shall be kept. 
Never spoke emperor a nobler sentiment. 

Down the walk, at the head of which we were now 
Standing, (hose noble women passed with their precious 
burdens on their shoulders. The town was burned 
and lazed, and a few inhabitants who were left were 
put to death. Hut the AccA iA the women, giving 

the name oi Woman's Fidelity to the castle, passed 



CASTLE WEIBERTREUE. 439 

into song, and story, and German hearts, for all time to 
come. 

Many German minstrels have made it the burden of 
elaborate poems. Peter Nichthanius has written a drama 
on it, and relates the story in a poetical prologue. Burger, 
a Suabian poet of the last century, has also paid a fitting 
tribute to the memory of the noble deed of his country- 
women. Addison, likewise, relates it in Number 469 of 
the " Spectator." 

The old castle is one of the most interesting ruins, even 
leaving out its history, that I have ever seen in Wiirtem- 
berg, which is a paradise of mediaeval recollections. The 
very cap of the hill seems to have been scraped off some- 
what for building upon, and all around the outmost verge 
runs a massive wall, which has here and there suffered a 
breach by powder and ball, or, which is more powerful 
because more persistent, by the tooth of time. The 
whole wall still preserves the holes where the soldiers 
used to shoot through. The perforations are smooth and 
round, and the views through them are charming. The 
old tower still stands in solitary glory, and from its base — 
its top is dismantled — the view on either side, up and 
down the valley, is beautiful in the extreme. The whole 
valley where Guelph and Ghibelline first raised their party 
watch-word is spread out before you as a picture. Off to 
the right, just around an intervening hill laden with ripe 
grapes, was charming, historical Heilbronn. On the Wei- 
bertreue there was much shrubbery, and a few gnarled, 
venerable trees grew out from the very foundations of the 
old walls. In a little stone jalou sie I saw, written in black 



440 LIFE IN THE FATHERLAND. 

paint, in one corner, some words in verse by Kerner, in 
his own hand, of which the following is the import : " My 
wife never bore me on her shoulders, but has borne with 
me ; and that has been a heavier burden than my tongue 
has power to express." 

We lingered a long time about the old ruins, first 
climbing on the wall, then swinging in boyish glee from 
the trees, then gathering a few mementos from the spot 
for some lady friends far away. We went down the hill 
rapidly, and only halted before the quaint town church.. 
To pass it by without a visit would have been to do an 
injustice to its history, and especially to the memory of 
one of its pastors, the great Oetinger, who, with all his 
tinge of mysticism, was one of the noblest men and de- 
voutest Christians of Germany in the eighteenth century. 
He and Bengel were the two groat theological lights of 
South German} - in their time. The side of the church 
is ornamented with some curious sepulchral sculptures. 
The faces of some of the statues are very expressive, 
but all of them quite odd-looking and stiff. The church 
itself is very plain. The only thing worth noticing 
a curious picture painted by Keller, the Alsacian, in 
1650, in which an old document in the town archives 
faithfully followed. It represents the women ^i Weins- 
berg carrying oft their husbands and lovers in triumph. 
Some have the men on their shoulders, others have them 
hanging to their backs, and still others are dragging them 
by the heels. Above the picture is the following citation 
from Proverbs: "The heart of her husband doth safely 
trust in her, so thai he shall have no need of spoil." 



CASTLE WEIBERTREUE. 441 

Weinsberg and its memorable castle have passed 
through many fearful ordeals since Guelph and Ghibel- 
line fought around it. In 1237 the emperor, Conrad IV., 
granted the town all the rights of a free imperial city. 
In the Peasants' War both the town and the castle were 
delivered, through treachery, to the peasants. The cap- 
tors showed no mercy ; they killed many of the citizens 
in cold blood, and hurled some, as Dietrich von Weiler, 
from the church-tower. The houses of the rich were 
sacked, and the gold and silver plate became cheap in 
new hands. By and by came the Thirty Years' War, 
when poor Weinsberg and its devoted castle suffered by 
famine, pestilence, and the whole train of horrors that 
Mars never fails to leave behind him. Weinsberg, it 
should be remembered, gave to the Reformation one -of 
its stanchest friends and defenders, CEcolampadius, who, 
besides doing all he could for the good cause of Germany, 
was the first to preach the doctrines of Protestantism in 
Basle, Switzerland, now one of the most thoroughly Prot- 
estant cities on the Continent. 

We spent the remainder of the day at Weinsberg, 
among the happy gleaners in the vineyard across the 
valley. Their hospitality knew no bounds. When we 
had eaten all the grapes we wished, they spread us a 
rustic table, with the branches and trunks of old trees for 
our seats. The meal was interrupted by the young men 
firing the vintage guns around the crowd of laughing and 
singing gleaners. 



I 1ST D E X. 



About, M. Edmond : extraordinary 
liberality of his first publisher, 202. 

Adulteration of French wine, 36. 

Ambras Castle, 361. 

American attendance on German 
universities, 165. 

Amusements, popular, 60. 

Antiquarian booksellers, 21, 220. 

Army : the ordinary military expend- 
iture of the German empire, 269 ; 
the standing army a huge machine, 
270 ; Archibald Forbes on the mo- 
bility of the Prussian army, 271 ; 
on home-training of German sol- 
diers, 284 ; culture of German pri- 
vates, 274 ; litterateurs in uniform, 
278 ; Landwehr, 278, 285. 

Auerbach, Berthold : his birth, 234 ; 
his education, 235 ; his literary ca- 
reer* 236-242. 

Austria : abolition of the Concordat, 
94 ; condition of its Protestant 
schools, 94 ; political history during 
the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- 
turies, 95 ; national reform since 
the war of 1866, 96 ; its educational 
institutions, 100. 

Authors in Germany : their literary 
productiveness, 175 ;-their patience, 
175 ; their uncompromising pluck, 
177 ; they are aided by promising 
students, 183 ; fondness for social 
refreshment, 185 ; simple diet and 
regular hours for sleeping, 187 ; 
great libraries at their disposal, 
188 ; cordial relations between 
publisher and author, 201 ; authors 
who fell in the Franco-Prussian 
war, 280. 

Bacon, Roger, his remarks on Ital- 
ian education, 154. 
Baptismal services, 60. 



Barbarossa, Frederic, his residence 
in the Castle of Trifels, 46. 

Basle University: prospectus of its 
theological department, in. 

Beef-lottery, 13. 

Belgium, French sympathy of its peo- 
ple, 273. 

Berlepsch, Captain Adolph von, 281. 

Berlichingen. Goetz von, 429, 

Berlin : rival of Leipzig in the book- 
trade, 204. 

Berlin University: prospectus of its 
theological department, 109 ; de- 
cline in the number of its students, 
114 ; its museums and library, 134 ; 
reminiscences of its leading pro- 
fessors, 135-142 ; its foundation, 
158. 

Bible : discussion concerning its study 
in German schools, 81 ; copies are 
gladly received by soldiers in the 
Franco-Prussian war, 296. 

Bible Society, British and Foreign : 
distributed Scriptures at the Paris 
Exposition, 34, and in the late war 
with France, 294 ; interesting ex- 
perience of its colporteurs, 295. 

Bibliography : in Russia, 214 ; carried 
to perfection in Germany, 226 ; sale 
of valuable libraries, 227. 

Bingen on the Rhine, 48. 

Bonn University : its architectural 
beauty, 50; Professor Lange, 51 ; 
prospectus of its theological de- 
partment, 110. 

Bookbinding : cheaply done in Ger- 
many, 192 ; Leipzig the heart of 
the trade, 21 1. 

Book-trade : stores thronged in the 
Christmas season, 19; peculiar 
methods of advertising, 21, 197 ; 
great number of German publish- 
ers, 190 ; small expense of book- 



444 



IXDEX. 



making, 190 ; large percentage 
of publishers on copyrights, 193 ; 
list of prices of the works of the 
principal litterateurs, 193 ; absence 
of the stereotyping custom, 194 ; 
tardiness of book-notices in re- 
views, 196; "commissions," 19S : 
business done by correspondence, 
204 ; Leipzig retains its supremacy 
as a publishing center over Berlin, 
204; Frankfort-on-the-Main the 
early center of the trade, 205 ; 
Booksellers' Exchange, 205 ; music 
publishers, 211 ; table of books 
published in Germany in 1872 and 
1873, 2I2 i wisdom of the German 
method of conducting the trade, 
213; the trade in Russia, 214 ; pub- 
lishing statistics of Russia, 215 ; 
of Scandinavia, 216; second-hand 
books, 226. 

Bottingen : legend of St. Michael's 
Church, 431. 

Botzen, 327. 

Brakelmann, Dr. Julius, 281. 

Bremen : its cabinet-makers and their 
wares, 6 ; the Faulenstrasse, 7 ; 
City Hall Square, 25 ; Cathedral 
Square, 26. 

Blight's address at Birmingham in 
[869, 75- 

Bracken, The, 367. 

Brockhaus, Frederic Arnold, 217. 

Brockhaus publishing house, 217 ; its 
various branches of business, 218 . 
huge antiquarian collection of 
books, 220 ; diversity in their pub- 
lications, 221. 

Bunsen : employed secretaries and lit- 
eral)- aid, 1S3. 

[CAT! res of French royalty, 301. 
Cassel, 376; a bit of its romance, 

377-385; 
l istle W eibertreue, 434. 
Catalogues, ol books, issued at the 

( In istmas holida) 5, 21 ; perfection 

ol the .in ol 1 ataloguing, 226 
t '. meteries, floral beaut) in, 72. 
Children : an important element in 
ial life, 17; « lerman 

love foi "ti spring, 5 i, 59. 
Christinas in shop and home, 18 27. 



Clergy-men : dare not interfere « ith 
politics, 63 ; their meager salaries, 
63 ; Churches rarely change their 
pastors, 04 ; no sympathy with 
"sects," 64; worldliness of Ger- 
man ministers, 92 ; the}' ignore the 
spiritual wants of the army, 293 ; 
their sermons on the war, 299. 

Cobden, on Prussian education, 75. 
1 de Lion, Richard, his impris- 
onment in Trifels, 40. 

Colani, M. : his theology, 42 ; his 
personal appearance, capacity, and 
pluck, 43. 

Cologne in war times, 274. 

Concordat, effect of its abrogation in 
Austria, 94. 

Cook, Rev. Lmile, his double ship- 
wreck, 35. 

" Cyper," the eminent Tyrolese guide, 
336 ; his sad fate, 338-346. 

Death notices, 258. 

Der Lange Hans, 424. 

De Stael, Madame, her 6rst ini; 
sions of Germany, 4 ; her estimate 
of German universities, 104. 

Dittrich's store in Bremen, 24. 

Doellinger: history of his resistance 
to ultra measures of Catholicism, 
144 ; his excommunication, 144 ; 
his early life, 145 ; his views of 
English theology, 147 ; his personal 
appearance and home. 146, 140 ; 
his oration on the universities of 
Europe, [53 ; his prejudice against 
Protestantism, 156. 

stic furniture in German] 
domestic happiness, 59. 

I tomremy, 36. 

Dorner, Prof., of Berlin. [38. 

Durny, M. : he maps out the educa- 
tional condition of France, 76. 

E \si 1 u fair, 210. 

Educational statisti Statistics. 

Education of American children in 

ianj . 93. 
Eisenach, 
Empress Eugenie, 31 ; her cares ol 

State, 32 ; her flight i" England 

England : the ignorance of its m 

75 ; its e.uliei universities, 1 



INDEX. 



445 



Epitaphs, 265. 
Exchange, Booksellers', 205. 
Executioners: mediaeval; their fees, 
261. 

Exposition in Paris, 2S ; the Palace, 
29 ; the American department, 30 ; 
a glimpse of the Empress, 31 ; 
model edifices, 34 ; evangelical 
book depositories, 35 ; Protestant 
services, 35. 

Fischhof, Dr., his educational sta- 
tistics and theories, 100-103. 

Flowers : set out early, 66 ; loved by 
all classes, 68 ; floral display in 
public parks, 71 ; flowers lavished 
at funerals, 71, 72. 

Forbes, Archibald : on the mobility 
of the Prussian army, 271 ; on 
different home training of French 
and German soldiery, 284. 
•France, popular education in, 76. 

Frankfort-on-the-Main : its schools, 
89 ; it was the early center of the 
book-trade, 205 ; metamorphosed 
in war times, 276. 

Frederic Augustus, King of Saxony, 
his death, 348. 

Froebel, Frederic, founder of the 
Kindergarten, 83. 

Funeral expenses in Tyrol, 260. 

Gardening in Germany, 66. 

Gass, Dr., his manner in the pro- 
fessor's chair, 123. 

German appreciation of foreign char- 
acter, 160. 

Goethe : his home in Weimar, 399. 

Goslar: its ancient cathedral, 364. 

Gottingen University: its early emi- 
nence in historic learning, 157. 

Grimm, Jacob, 161. 

Grimm, The Brothers : their tale of 
the busy Faulenstrasse, 8-12. 

Haardt and Vosges Mountains, 
an international barrier, 44. 

Halle, its antiquated surroundings, 
125. 

I i aii _• University: prospectus of its 
theological department, no ; its 
Nestors, 125-133 ; its early fame, 
157- 



Hamilton, Sir Wm., on German uni- 
versities, 104. 

Hartz, The, 362; simple customs of 
the peasantry, 374. 

Heidelberg, its beauty, 116. 

Heidelberg University: it abrogates 
its court, 113 ; its departed wor- 
thies, 116, 117; present leading 
professors, 118. 

Heilbronn : a curious grape-press, 
426 ; legend of the origin of the 
city, 427. 

Held, C. F., assists Tholuck, 184. 

Heligoland, its history, scenery, and 
customs, 390-395. 

Hengstenberg, of Berlin, 137. 

Herder's statue in Weimar, 404. 

Herth, Paul, the poet, 281. 

Hildebrand, Charlotte : her romantic 
attachment to Wm. von Hum- 
boldt, 378 ; his kindly aid, and 
" Letters to a Female Friend," 
376. 

Hinrichs, the bibliographer. 231. 

Hitzig : his early life, 118 ; merciless 
criticism, 119; personal appear- 
ance, 119 ; biblical learning, 120. 

Hoch Joch Ferner, 332. 

Home life in Germany, its unpreten- 
tiousness, 52 ; its happiness, 59. 

Hude cloister, 389. 

Humboldt, Alexander von, 161. 

Humboldt, Wm. von : romantic story 
concerning him, 376. 

Innsbruck, 356 ; Court Church, 357 ; 
its beautiful monuments, 358, 359. 

Inn Valley, 347. 

Italy : its popular ignorance, 76 ; 
university statistics, 162 ; paltry 
endowment of literary institutions, 
164 ; decrease in number of stu- 
dents, 164. 

Jacobi, Professor, of Halle, 185. 
Joseph II., Emperor of Austria, his 

toleration, 95. 
Juval Castle, 319. 

Kerner, Andreas Justinus, the 

Suabian poet, 437. 
Kindergarten, 82 ; its founder, 83 ; a 

description of the principal one in 



446 



INDEX. 



Bremen, 84 ; absence of Christian 
teaching, 88. 
Kleinert, Prof., of Berlin, 141. 

Lampoons, 266. 

Landau, its warlike history, 45. 

Landeck Castle, 348. 

Landwehr, 278, 285 ; " encumbran- 
ces," 2S5 ; Roch's poem, " The 
Landwehrman's Departure," 2S6. 

Lange, his works, 51 ; his literary 
daughter, 51 ; his lecture room, 
51 ; his literary productions, 213. 

Latin, once used exclusively in Uni- 
versity lectures, 157. 

Legend of " the lazy brothers," 8-12. 

Legislation, bearing on servants, 65 ; 
on schools, 75. 

Leipzig: its cheap rates of printing, 
191 ; comparison of its issues of 
books with those of Berlin, 205 ; 
the Booksellers' Exchange, 205 ; 
the musical center of the world, 
210 ; large numbers of printers and 
bookbinders, 211. 

Leipzig University: prospectus of its 
theological department, 111. 

Leo, Professor, of Halle, 129. 

Leypoldt, F., on German book com- 
mission business, 190; on German 
Booksellers' Exchange, 206. 

Libraries: of Prussian universities, 
108 ; that of Berlin, 135 ; their 
great worth in Germany, 1 - - : 
comparative list of the chief Ger- 
man libraries, 189 ; of Wolfen- 
buttel, 362. 

Literary productiveness in Germany, 

175. 
Luther's elm, 47 ; his cloister and 
grave in Wittenberg, 406, 408 ; 
om in the Wartburg in which 
Luther translated the Bible, 410. 

•'Magazindes Ai -1 indes," quoted 
concerning Russian and Scandi- 
navian book-trade, .m |. 

\l lid of < irleans, her picturesque 
birth-place, 37. 

Marbach, Schiller's birth-place, 412 ; 
it- varied historj , 416. 

Marketing, done exclusively by the 

l.idu S, ' 



Matrimonial solicitations, 259. 

Maultasch Castle, 325. 

Maximilian, Emperor, his adventure 

at the Martinsward, 355. 
Mayence: its gloomy cathedral, 47 ; 

French prisoners, 303. 
Meals, and servants, 52-57 ; two 

lunches and three meals a day, 53 ; 

hearty eating enjoyed late at night, 

60 ; how German authors dine, 

1S7. 
Meier, Professor of Halle. 279. 
Melanchthon's home and grave in 

Wittenberg, 407, 408. 
Meran, 322. 

Messner, Professor of Berlin, 141. 
Metternich, Prince, 32. 
Minnesingers, remarkable old book 

concerning them, 287. 
Minster of Strasbourg, 39 ; traces of 

shot and shell, 42. 
Mottoes, quaint, on doorways of 

houses, 262. 
Mouse Tower, 48. 
M Ciller, Julius, of Halle : his manner 

in the lecture-room, 126. 
Munich University, 143. 
Mu>ic: Leipzig Conservator)-, 210. 

NANCY : its picturesque; 

Natural sciences: enthusiasm for 
their study in Austria, 98. 

Neander: his literary assistants, 185. 

Newspaper oddities, - -; ~. 

New Near visits, n>>t common, 63. 

Niebuhr, 161. 

Nordhausen : its brandy manufact- 
ure, 374. 

Normal school (Protestant! in Bie- 
lit.-. Austria, 

OLDENBURG, 386; ancient linden- 
tree, and it- legend, 387. 
( (rtler peak, 316. 

PABST, Dr., his literary career and 

death on the battle-field, - 
Paris Exposition, 28. 
Perthes, Christopher Friedrich, 224, 
Perthes, Justus, 224 : his maps ac- 
cepted as Government authori 
; famous publications, . 

1\ u 1m.m11. Augustus : early y< 






INDEX. 



447 



242 ; his friendship for Lange, 

243 ; life in London, 244 ; he 
plans an English expedition to 
Central Africa, 245 : sends Over- 
weg to the assistance of Barth, 
246 ; other exploration schemes, 
247, 248. 

Pincus, Herr, the bibliographer, 220. 

Piper, Professor, 185. 

Planche's verses on the Rhine, 50. 

Pontlaz Bridge, its tragedy, 349. 

Portugal : educational statistics, 77. 

Prague University, 155. 

Printing cheaply done in Germany, 
191 ; printing establishments in 
Leipzig, 211. 

Professors : Colani, 42 ; Lange, 51 ; 
salaries, 107 ; selected with care, 
10S ; distribution of theological 
professors in Germany, 112 ; Hit- 
zig, 118 ; Schenkel, 121 ; Gass, 
123 ; Miiller, 126 ; Tholuck, 127, 
179, 184 ; Leo, 129 ; Twesten, 136 ; 
Hengstenberg, 137 ; Dorner, 138 ; 
Semisch, 139 ; Steinmeyer, 140 ; 
Trendelenburg, 141 ; Kleinert, 141 ; 
Messner, 141 ; Doellinger, 144 ; 
Schelling, 151 ; Niebuhr, 161 ; Hit- 
ter, 161 ; professors easy of access, 
170 ; Piper, 185 ; Neander, 185 ; 
Jacobi, 185 ; Petermann, 242 ; 
Vogt, 248 ; Meier, 279 ; professors 
turn soldiers, 279 ; Pabst, 280 ; 
Brakelmann, 281. 

Pulpit and press during the Franco- 
Prussian war, 298. 

Rammelsburg Mines, 364. 

Reformation : in Austria, 94 ; its ef- 
fect on education, 156. 

Rhine : its beauty, 44 ; verses by 
Planche, 50. 

Ritter, the geographer, 161. 

Roch, P'erdinand, his poem, " The 
Landwehrman's Departure," 286. 

Russian book-trade, 214. 

Salaries, of German clergymen, 63 ; 
of university professors. 107. 

Sanscrit report of the battle of Se- 
dan, by Von Thielmann, 283. 

Schelling, his lecture-room, 151. 

Schenkel : his popular power as a 



speaker, 121 ; his rationalism, 122; 
he lacks students, 123. 

Schiller : his home and tomb, 402 ; 
his birth-place, 418 ; centennial 
celebration of his birth, 420. 

Schnalls, Valley of the, 330. 

School reformers, 98-103. 

Schools : controversy on Bible in- 
struction, 81 ; a lack of Christian 
instruction in elementary schools, 
88 ; plan of studies, 90 ; cost of 
tuition in Frankfort, 91 ; the sexes 
educated separately, 92 ; Protest- 
ant schools in Austria, 94. 

Scotch universities, their decline, 159. 

Sedan, reception of the news in Ger- 
many, 290. 

Semisch, Prof., of Berlin, 139. 

Semi, Father Franz, 335 ; his ac- 
count of the death of " Cyper," 338. 

Servants, German : wages, perquisites, 
and fees, 55, 56 ; arrangements for 
the relief of superannuated serv- 
ants, 57 ; legal requirements of 
servants and employers, 54, 57. 

Sexes, work together in the field, 67 ; 
educated separately, 92. 

Sigmundseck Castle, 351. 

Sigmundskrone, 326. 

Society, one can choose his own, 62 ; 
social ceremoniousness, 63. 

Spain, its educational statistics, 77 ; 
fewness of universities, 159. 

Staben, 32S. 

Stams, its great Cistercian convent, 
353 ; a royal burying place, 354. 

Statistics : {Educational:) of France, 
76 ; of Italy, 76 ; of Spain and 
Portugal, 77 ; of Sweden and Nor- 
way, 78 ; of Germany, 78-8 T ; of 
Austria, compared with Switzer- 
land, 100 ; of Prussian universi- 
ties, io6 ; of German universities, 
(tabulated,) 115 ; of Italian uni- 
versities, 162-164. {Literary :) of 
book-publishing, 175 ; table of 
chief German libraries, 189 ; list 
of prices of works of principal lit- 
terateurs, 193 ; table of books 
published in Germany in 1S72- 
1873, 212 ; publishing statistics of 
Russia,. 215 ; of Scandinavia, 215. 
i Steinmeyer, Professor, of Berlin, 140. 



448 



INDEX. 



Stereotyping : increases costliness of 
book manufacture, 194 ; fatal to 
interests of authorship, 195. 

Stifter, Adalbert : the Austrian poet, 
254 ; his awkward modesty, 255. 

Strasbourg: its Minster, 39; bom- 
bardment of the city by the Ger- 
man army, 40 ; M. Colani, the 
theologian, 42. 

Sweden and Norway : provision for 
popular instruction, 78. 

Switzerland : education statistics, 100. 

T amina River: its curious gorge, 310. 

Tauchnitz, the publisher, 224. 

Teachers' Association: of Austria, 
97 ; of Germany, 98. 

Theological departments in German 
universities, 109. 

Theology : distribution of professors 
throughout Germany, 112 ; the 
young men of Germany on the 
side of orthodoxy, 123. 

Tholuck : his intellectual wealth in 
old age, 127 ; the regularity of his 
habits, 12S ; celebration of his 
half-century of work in Halle Uni- 
versity, 130 ; his first literary ven- 
ture, 179 ; he employs promising 
students as literary assistants, 1S4. 

Trafui, 317. 

Trendelenburg, Prof., of Berlin, 141. 

Trifels, Cattle of, 45. 

Twesten, Professor, of Berlin, 136. 

Tyrol, The : a journey thither, 309 ; 
its history, 313; Tyrol Castle, 322 ; 
delightful scenery, 323. 

Tyrolese, their fantastic costume-, 

313 ; their Catholicism, 315. 

Universities in ( Germany : Bonn, 50, 
no; their worth, 1114; compara- 
tive view of the nine in Prussia, 
105 ; their libraries, ro8 ; causes 
of their prosperity, 108 ; theolog- 
ic al departments, cog ; Berlin, i" 1 : 

[35, 1 58 ; I I. die, I lo, 1 25, 1 :- . 

Leipzig, 111; Basle, 111 ; a reform 
needed, 1 1 4 ; tabulated statist ics, 
115; Munich, 143 ; Prague, 155 ; 
their \ ici isitudes, 1 50, [57 ; ( i< »i 1- 
ingen, 157; expenses ol students, 



166, 169 ; comparative excellences 
of universitii losed on out- 

break of Franco-Prussian war, 2 
Universities in EuroDe : the earliest 
of importance, 153 ; surveillance 
of Italian schools by the Popes, 

154 ; Paris universities, 155 ; the 
first of England and Germany, 

155 ; their decline in Scotland, 
159 ; fewness in Spain, 159 ; Ital- 
ian university statistics, 162. 

VlNTSCHGAU, 319. 

Vogt, Karl : the early friend of 
Agassiz, 24S ; his literary labors, 

249 ; his contempt for revelation, 

250 ; his views on man's origin, 25 1 . 

War : normal state of continental 
nations, 269 ; sympathy of Bel- 
gium with France, 273 ; enthusi- 
asm of the Germans on the out- 
break of hostilities, 274. 270 ; au- 
thors who fell on the Geld, - 
war lyric by F. Roch, 286 ; old 
grudge-- revived, 2.^7 ; calmness 
with which news of success was 
received, 289; sympathy and help 
for wounded soldiers. 292 ; services 
of the press, 300; Government bul- 
letins, 300 ; meager correspond- 
ence of the press, 300 ; Caricatures 
of the royal family, 301. 

Wartburg, 41". 

Weimar in its palmy days, 396 ; 
Goethe's residences, 399, 4>>i ; house 
and relics of Schiller, 402; Herder's 
statue, 404 ; Wieland's tomb, 405 

Weinsberg, and its story of woman's 
fidelity,' 435. 

Winter in ( lennam 

Witches' 1 toncing-place, 

Wittenberg : Luther's house. 406 . 
Melanchthon's home, 407 ; Ca 
Church, i"s. 

Woerth, heroic conduct "\ German 

w omen in the battle, 293. 

Wolfenbuttel, it- library, 
Wretcehks, lien M.. hi- work 
educational reform. 98. 

\ 1 \u Market, A Germ \s. 15 17. 



An Important Historical Series. 



EPOCHS OF HISTORY. 



EDITED BY 



EDWARD E. MORRIS, M.A., 

Of Lincoln College, Oxford. 
Head Master of the Hedfordshire Middle-Class Public School, &c. 



Each 1 vol. 16mo, with Outline Maps, Price per volume, in cloth, $1.00, 



HISTORIES of countries are rapidly becoming so numerous that it is almost impos 
sible for the most industrious student to keep pace with them. Such works are, 
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the history of a nation subordinate to this more general idea. No attempt will be 
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the clearest light the salient incidents and features of each epoch. Special attention 
will be paid to the literature, manners, state of knowledge, and all those character- 
istics which exhibit the life of a people as well as the policy of their rulers during 
any period. To make the text more readily intelligible, outline maps will be given 
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THE FOLLOWING VOLUMES ARE NOW READY: 

The ERA of the PROTESTANT REVOLUTION. By F. Seebokm, Author 
of "The Oxford Reformers— Colet, Erasmus, More." 

The CRUSADES. By the Rev. G. W. Cox, M.A., Author of the " History of 
Greece." 

The THIRTY YEARS' WAR, I618-1648. By Samuel Rawson Gardiner. 

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I 






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THE 

BRIC-A-BRAC SERIES. 

Personal Reminiscences of Famous Poets and Novelists, Wits and 
Humorists, Artists, Actors, Musicians, and the like. 

EDITED BY 

RICHARD HENRY STODDARD. 



Th: volumes already issued have insured the Bric-a-Brac Series wide and permanent 
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rapines, autobiographies, and memoirs that have lately appeared, all the reminiscences 
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most brilliant in the annals of English Literature- Occasionally, too. pi. ice will be found in 
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been selected as its motto, " Infinite riches in a little room." 



The Fourth Volume, to be issued at an early date, will be entitled 
PERSONAL REMINISCENCES BY 

BARHAM, HARNESS, AND HODDER 
One volume, square 121110, cloth, £1-50. 



Just issued: 

PROSPER MERTMEE'S LETTERS TO AN INCOGNITA; with 
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ANECDOTE BIOGRAPHIES OF THACKERAY AND DICKENS 

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